Lofty green mountains, splashing waterfalls, meandering streams and towering trees in an idyllic landscape – Nature is at its best here; fully in tandem with the bloom of life. Life is in full action; excitement and optimism is reflected everywhere with a renewed sense of being and zest of life. The healthy environment, lovely fields along with smooth roads and exalted bridges add to joy, thrill and colours of life. The hustle and bustle of life in these areas, and the remarkable willingness and determination of the people of the areas to go to markets, their workplaces, educational institutions is worth seeing. No one could imagine this is the same area once devastated by the wrath of nature.
In sharp contrast to this, the situation prevailing just four years ago was simply horrendous; the areas could then best be described as a collective human sepulcher. Never before such a horrifying situation was witnessed by the hardworking people of the land. The slayer shiver, recorded 7.6 on the Richter Scale, did not spare anything in the affected areas ranging from houses and communication to health, education and agriculture. The mighty tremor wrought huge damage; 5808 education facilities, 750 governance buildings and over 400 water and sanitation schemes were destroyed. Over all nine districts of Azad Kashmir and NWFP with an inhospitable terrain, covering a 30,000 km area was destroyed. Most of these areas gave a deserted look with debris and ruins all around. The earthquake devoured 73,338 persons and severely injured 128,304 persons. The situation was aptly described by the then Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, “I am Prime Minister of a graveyard”
Beneath the wreckage and rubble, however, life was sprouting with a new zeal; the denouement bespoke of a new beginning of life; the dirge was fast converting into a song of life. Thanks to the diligence, persistence and dedication of Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency, the four major cities of Azad Kashmir and NWFP, Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Bagh and Balakot are being transformed into modern cities with beautiful and safe residential buildings, hospitals, educational institutions and road networks, and bridges.
Look at the District Development Complex with a beautiful Turkish style Mosque in its right and housing all government offices. Its establishment has improved public access to the government offices, enhanced inter-agency coordination and reduced communication costs creating an enabling environment for the communities as well as for the staff. These women development centres have already brought a considerable proportion of the women population of these areas to the mainstream of life. Happy faces, thrill and ecstasy reflect an overall change in every facet of life. Turning disaster into opportunity, ERRA has made this enormous transformation possible in a very short span of only four years.
There had been no institutional setup available for the response to the disasters like the October 8th 2005. ERRA was established under a notification dated 24th of October 2005 issued by the Prime Minister’s Secretariat as an autonomous organization in view of the expediency of the situation, to provide for the post-disaster damage assessment, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the earthquake-affected areas. ERRA immediately put in place a well-articulated relief, recovery, and reconstruction framework and divided the response into four well-defined phases; immediate, short-term, midterm and long term.
The turnaround is remarkable indeed. ERRA undertook to work in twelve different sectors unparallel in the area of post-disaster reconstruction and rehabilitation world over, including housing, urban development, education, health, livelihood, water and sanitation, environment, water and power, tourism etc.
Houses provide security to the inmates not only from the inclement weather but also from the more physical threats all around. House is the basic unit of an integrated social structure, a sine qua non for a peaceful, prosperous and forward-looking society. But October 2005 earthquake robbed the people of the affected areas from this facility.
Just behold these luminous houses with shiny roof tops and happy occupants in harmony with the beautiful nature presenting an almost dream-like situation. The owner-driven Rural Housing Program with assisted and inspected construction is ERRA’s Flagship program showing success rate of more than 90%. It has helped construction of more than 400,000 seismically safe houses for the earthquake-affected people. While the project is almost complete, it will leave about 700,000 trained human resource for seismically safe reconstruction.
ERRA is cognizant of the fact that the provision of clean water is one of the basic requirements of a self-sufficient house. Easy availability of clean water has been instrumental in better family health as well as reduction in women’s workload, besides preventing water-related diseases. Moreover, ERRA has also used the novel experience of Rain Water Harvesting as one of the best alternative and supplementary solution to mitigate water scarcity.
Scarcity usually hit hard the vulnerable segments of the society including women. Besides, introducing gender mainstreaming, ERRA has also coordinated the establishment of social safety networks that provide institutionalized protection facilitating their access to legal aid, medical services and livelihood opportunities. Such centres are being established in all the nine earthquake-affected districts. Community livelihood program that supports community level micro projects identified by the communities themselves, such as kitchen gardening, irrigation channels, provision of better quality of seeds etc. is yet another bold initiative taken by ERRA. The success of the initiative would go a long way in enabling the people of the earthquake areas to lead a self-sufficient life.
This provides an ideal environment for education and equally important is the body language. There is a greater desire for enlightenment on faces with lofty dreams in their eyes. The seismically safe educational buildings with trained teaching staff and modern day facilities are attracting high enrollment. ERRA implemented new techniques to fast track the pace of reconstruction and to bring back normalcy in the affected areas. Disability is no longer a disability for earthquake affected people who suffered injuries owing to this colossal tragedy. ERRA’s Medical rehabilitation program for disabled persons not only provides 8% quota for disabled persons to work and earn a respectable living, but the related centers provide best medical facilities to persons with disability, along with training community rehabilitation workers.
Bringing elected representatives on board, introducing the latest technologies, adopting a community-driven approach for reconstruction of schools, outsourcing designing of projects to meet timelines, third party material checking regime, smooth flow of funds to SERRA and PERRA, contactors facilitation centres coupled with a greater degree of transparency and media access are but some of the hallmarks of the new policy initiatives introduced by ERRA to further enhance reconstruction efforts. But mind it, ERRA is not just about brick and mortar, rather it aims at changing lives through interventions, partnerships and sharing knowledge. No doubt, ERRA has done wonders and set precedents for the world to follow.
No doubt, since its realization, ERRA has met unparalleled success but the progress made in its fourth year has outperformed the previous three years. Courtesy its hard-work, dedication and commitment, ERRA has won an enviable prestige with the latest steps like improvement in procurement and contract management, establishment of project implementation and coordination unit, transparency and flexibility in financial matters and granting greater autonomy to PERRA and SERRA. Not only are the efforts visible on ground but have attracted international appreciation also thus becoming one of the prides of the nation. And with integrity, accountability and transparency its guiding principles, ERRA is likely to be an example to be quoted in the field of post disaster management.
Amer Rizwan
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
OLIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN PAKISTAN (Documentary Script) by Amer Rizwan
OLIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN PAKISTAN
By. Amer Rizwan
The importance of pure, hygienic and nutritious edible oil for a healthy human life cannot be overestimated. In Pakistan despite ever-increasing demand for the edible or cooking oil and the yawning gap between the capacity of localized production and its demand, we have not been able to seriously focus on evolving an oil-producing strategy in the past. In the recent years, however, the Government has started encouraging and supporting the national production of edible oils such as canola, sunflower and soybean as well as exploring the possibility of sustainable production of other kinds of edible oils such as coconut, palm and Olive.
Olive is universally considered to be one of the most nutritious and wholesome sources of edible oil. Pakistan is one of those countries which are naturally endowed with vast forests of wild genre of olive, popularly known as Kau. Lack of awareness among the local populace and lesser government attention are primarily responsible for the increasing depletion in these olive forests mainly for fuel and other consumptive uses. Now courtesy the Government of Italy, an Italian variety of olive budding is being grafted in these remaining wild olive plants in NWFP, Baluchistan and Punjab provinces where the climate for the self-growth of olive is very congenial. Besides, siblings of the variety have also been cultivated in a great number in these areas. The actual national policy is to target the marginal land in remote hilly areas of the country, where no or few other crops may be cultivated, and generally considered as unproductive land. Soils are basically stony, infertile and are often placed on steep slopes. These are considered to be the most suitable conditions for the growth of Olive plants.
The project Promotion of Production and Commercialization of Olive Oil in Pakistan was launched in July 2007 courtesy the Italian Institute of Agronomy and its project counterpart Pakistan Oilseed Development Board. The latter is working under the administrative control of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.
Some of the initial targets of the project were the location of suitable areas for olive growing. One of the primary objectives of the programme is to create awareness among the local people to produce olive on their own as a cash crop.
In Tarnab farm near Peshawar, the plants are being given to the farmers hailing from the adjoining areas of Charsadda, Mardan, Takhtbhai, Swabi and Noshehra. Just view these grafted plants at the farm. They comprise all types of varieties. However, grafting, nourishing and looking after the plants need painstaking vigilance and technical expertise. At the farm, the farmers from other areas of the province get technical guidance as to how to go about the procedure of grafting.
Two significant projects in this regard are at Nikka Darra and Garam Thoon in Khanpur where at about 4 square kilometers area, four to five thousand such plants have been grown and developed. Grafting a plant is not a simple process; it needs deftness and not all the time it is braced with success. Some of the grafted plants have already started yielding fruit here. A single Olive tree yields about 20 to 40 kg of Olive fruit. Besides, using the Italian variety, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian varieties are also being grafted to get the positive results.
A continuous oil extraction unit is being used at Tarnab Farm Peshawar for demonstration and training purposes. The unit has been imported from Italy and it is meant to extract oil from the fruit. Fruit is put into the machine from an opening and after thoroughly cleaning it, the fruit is sent to the grinder where the edible oil is extracted. The liquid is passed through a final cleansing process and then the purified oil is seen oozing through a pipe to different containers. The farmers from other districts process their Olives and extract from them oil free of cost. This is mainly to encourage the farmers to grow and graft Olive plants. The machine has the capacity to process 500 kg of Olive per hour
Interview of Engineer
A recent study has revealed that almost as many as 800,000 hectares of land is suitable for this crop. It also recommends the cultivation of olive in better growing environments than those considered so far. This would also allow for high scheme plantations provided with irrigation systems and higher degree of mechanization.
Haripur Fruit Nursery Farm is yet another facility where Australian Olive plants are used for budding and grafting. The process has turned the local variant into an olive producing Olive plants.
One of the pressing imperative in this regard is to train the technicians at different levels and for the creation and improvement of the necessary infrastructures and facilities in support of this sector. Although the production of olive oil will mainly be marketed in Pakistan to satisfy the growing local demand for the product yet in the longer run its export to the other countries of the region can also be explored.
The locally produced olive oil would significantly help to improve the diet of the local people by providing them better quality nutritious oil especially compared with other kinds of fats being used currently. Moreover the introduction and commercialization of this crop in Pakistan would create more jobs for the local population, especially in areas in which farmers are facing difficulties in generating a reasonable income through traditional crops.
By. Amer Rizwan
The importance of pure, hygienic and nutritious edible oil for a healthy human life cannot be overestimated. In Pakistan despite ever-increasing demand for the edible or cooking oil and the yawning gap between the capacity of localized production and its demand, we have not been able to seriously focus on evolving an oil-producing strategy in the past. In the recent years, however, the Government has started encouraging and supporting the national production of edible oils such as canola, sunflower and soybean as well as exploring the possibility of sustainable production of other kinds of edible oils such as coconut, palm and Olive.
Olive is universally considered to be one of the most nutritious and wholesome sources of edible oil. Pakistan is one of those countries which are naturally endowed with vast forests of wild genre of olive, popularly known as Kau. Lack of awareness among the local populace and lesser government attention are primarily responsible for the increasing depletion in these olive forests mainly for fuel and other consumptive uses. Now courtesy the Government of Italy, an Italian variety of olive budding is being grafted in these remaining wild olive plants in NWFP, Baluchistan and Punjab provinces where the climate for the self-growth of olive is very congenial. Besides, siblings of the variety have also been cultivated in a great number in these areas. The actual national policy is to target the marginal land in remote hilly areas of the country, where no or few other crops may be cultivated, and generally considered as unproductive land. Soils are basically stony, infertile and are often placed on steep slopes. These are considered to be the most suitable conditions for the growth of Olive plants.
The project Promotion of Production and Commercialization of Olive Oil in Pakistan was launched in July 2007 courtesy the Italian Institute of Agronomy and its project counterpart Pakistan Oilseed Development Board. The latter is working under the administrative control of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.
Some of the initial targets of the project were the location of suitable areas for olive growing. One of the primary objectives of the programme is to create awareness among the local people to produce olive on their own as a cash crop.
In Tarnab farm near Peshawar, the plants are being given to the farmers hailing from the adjoining areas of Charsadda, Mardan, Takhtbhai, Swabi and Noshehra. Just view these grafted plants at the farm. They comprise all types of varieties. However, grafting, nourishing and looking after the plants need painstaking vigilance and technical expertise. At the farm, the farmers from other areas of the province get technical guidance as to how to go about the procedure of grafting.
Two significant projects in this regard are at Nikka Darra and Garam Thoon in Khanpur where at about 4 square kilometers area, four to five thousand such plants have been grown and developed. Grafting a plant is not a simple process; it needs deftness and not all the time it is braced with success. Some of the grafted plants have already started yielding fruit here. A single Olive tree yields about 20 to 40 kg of Olive fruit. Besides, using the Italian variety, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian varieties are also being grafted to get the positive results.
A continuous oil extraction unit is being used at Tarnab Farm Peshawar for demonstration and training purposes. The unit has been imported from Italy and it is meant to extract oil from the fruit. Fruit is put into the machine from an opening and after thoroughly cleaning it, the fruit is sent to the grinder where the edible oil is extracted. The liquid is passed through a final cleansing process and then the purified oil is seen oozing through a pipe to different containers. The farmers from other districts process their Olives and extract from them oil free of cost. This is mainly to encourage the farmers to grow and graft Olive plants. The machine has the capacity to process 500 kg of Olive per hour
Interview of Engineer
A recent study has revealed that almost as many as 800,000 hectares of land is suitable for this crop. It also recommends the cultivation of olive in better growing environments than those considered so far. This would also allow for high scheme plantations provided with irrigation systems and higher degree of mechanization.
Haripur Fruit Nursery Farm is yet another facility where Australian Olive plants are used for budding and grafting. The process has turned the local variant into an olive producing Olive plants.
One of the pressing imperative in this regard is to train the technicians at different levels and for the creation and improvement of the necessary infrastructures and facilities in support of this sector. Although the production of olive oil will mainly be marketed in Pakistan to satisfy the growing local demand for the product yet in the longer run its export to the other countries of the region can also be explored.
The locally produced olive oil would significantly help to improve the diet of the local people by providing them better quality nutritious oil especially compared with other kinds of fats being used currently. Moreover the introduction and commercialization of this crop in Pakistan would create more jobs for the local population, especially in areas in which farmers are facing difficulties in generating a reasonable income through traditional crops.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
8th ABU Robot Contest 2009 Tokyo (Script for PTV/NUST Team written by Amer Rizwan
8th ABU Robot Contest 2009 Tokyo (Script for PTV/NUST Team
Copyrights @ Amer Rizwan
The glittering transparent waters of pristine lakes and rivers, lush green fertile slopes and plains, towering peaks, scintillating panorama, and the resulting aura of mystery make this land a beautiful mosaic of all the colours of rainbow. The exotic natural beauty is so captivating and enthralling that it leaves one spell bound.
The versatile flora and fauna and rich culture and traditional festivals make the future of this nation really promising. Keeping in line with the spirit of the land, people of the country are lively, energetic and art-loving.
The land is cradle to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Gandhara art and Buddhism are the most important components of this tradition.
The inhabitants of the land are rough and tough with a strong belief in their capabilities and a firm commitment to their purpose of making the nation even greater. The northern areas of the country can rightly boast of being one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is here that the second highest peak of the world K2 commands the admiration and awe from the tourists and locals alike.
Here is a wonderful opportunity to observe the rich culture and tradition of the land, particularly during the seasons of fairs and festivals – the dances and songs of the people of the land can easily enliven the dull spirits.
Shandur Polo Festival is one of the oldest sporting events that greet fans with its cultural hospitality and excite them with the thrilling moments of Polo matches. Shandur hosts thousands of spectators from inland and abroad on the world’s highest Polo ground each year in the month of July. The backdrop of Hindukush range, hospitality, scenic views, folk dances and some thrilling wild-Polo matches – different from the regular polo – on the world’s highest Polo ground is what makes it a thing apart.
This is Pakistan – Having emerged on 14 August 1947 as an independent state on the world map, the land is full of these spell-bound beauties and infinite opportunities.
This green, beautiful and modern capital of the country Islamabad itself is one of the signs of the greatness that future has in store for this nation.
College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) Rawalpindi is a constituent college of the National University of Science and Technology or NUST.
participating team. The team did undergo a lot of preparatory work ahead of the exercise. The team members held preparatory sessions to come up with something original. They used all the three robots – manual, kago, and digital – on the experimental basis. However, the team could not get through in the preliminary competition.
NED University of Science and Technology Karachi was the third participating team. The team members worked meticulously focusing on each and every detail of the robot making process. They did hold experimental demonstrations of all the three robots. Unfortunately in the preliminary competition their scheme could not work properly, so the team could not qualify for the 8th ABU Contest 2009 to be held at Tokyo.
Teams from all the three institutions participated in the contest with positive frames of mind yet in the final show it was EME College Rawalpindi which carried the day.
The constituent college i.e. EME offers study and research facilities in the disciplines of Electrical, Mechanical, Computer and Mechatronics Engineering. The laboratories are highly equipped with state of the art tools to help the researchers and engineers carry out research in various fields of engineering.
Participating in the first ABU Robot Contest 2002 Tokyo, the college won a special Toyota award.
Ahead of the competition, members of the participating team held marathon sessions and debates and held in-depth study to start working on the project with resourcefulness. Their brainstorming and interactive sessions proved instrumental in enabling them to come up with an original and successful scheme.
This year the theme of the contest is ‘Travel together for the victory drums’. The theme is in fact a game based on an imaginary journey of olden days using this Kago Palanquin. An automatic robot in the front and a manual robot in the rear shall cooperate to carry an automatic Traveller robot in a Kago to the goal with the aim of completing the journey before the other team. Various tasks stand in the way, including a Mountain Pass and Woods. The Kago and Traveller Robot must not be dropped. The Traveller Robot must beat the three Victory Drums when it reaches the Goal Zone. The three traditional Japanese drums are arranged vertically on a platform. The team that beats all three drums first is the winner.
The preparatory work was not easy. The winning team used computer graphics and simulation to get help from. The team has had a series of deliberation and discussion sessions using white boards and other aides. The team members put their heads together to come up with something original and competitive. Each one of them contributed with new ideas.
It required close concentration and singular dedication. Besides, ingenuity, the scheme required technical skills on the part of the members to work both as individuals as well as a group. Each one of the members took upon himself a specific assignment related to the main project to accomplish. Basically the team was self reliant in preparing the robot because they designed and made the parts themselves.
Before putting the robots in the contest, all the robots – manual, digital and drum-beater/Kago – were properly tested. It was ensured that the automatic robot in the front and a manual robot in the rear cooperate to carry the automatic Traveller robot in a Kago to the goal and to complete the journey quickly. In order to eliminate the margin of error, the scheme was tried again and again. Team members were alive to the fact that in the final competition, the team that beats all three three drums first would be the winner.
I am Syed Ghayur Ahmad, team member and manual operator of Robocon. I’ll operate this robot. In the beginning let me introduce the basic structure. Advantage of using this basic structure is that it is a ‘V’ shape apparatus designed especially to cover mountain passes. Its basic advantage is that when this structural robot will be pushing it from the rear, the front part of the structure would oppose that component and thus force thus applied, thereby making its movement stable and securing it from overturning. It would drive through this chain. You can see we have used chains – four by four. Again its biggest advantage would be that it would facilitate in the process of climbing the mountains. Now let me tell you something about the slider mechanism that we have designed to be placed on the structure. It can be moved in the linear direction; it has a rotator as well, and then again it can be moved in the linear direction. Its advantage is that when the manual robot from the rear would rotate or use its force in opposite direction, then it will automatically adjust itself accordingly.
The slider mechanism was fixed in the machine workshop of the college. It contains three sticks to beat the three respective target drums.
Comments by Khalid Ahmad
Team Member
The main brain of our robot is this micro-control board. We have used Pick 18F 4520. In the board, we have 13 ADC Channels, and 2 PWM cc modules which are used for motor drive. Our basic requirement was to take direct input from censors through our Controller/APCs and to manipulate them digitally. Basic reason for scheme is that our game field has multi colours which if manipulated through analogue would be problematic. The digital scheme has given our APCs a great edge. Now we can generate automatic referencing through programming.
Micro-control board that has ADC channels and modules help the motor to drive the machine. It has been designed and prepared by the team members.
Comments
Umar Ilyas
I am Umar Ilyas. I am Robocon’s Team leader. I’ll share with you something about the mechanical structure of the tableau robot. This is our tableau robot with a square base. We have used tyres here which have a tighter grip so that it may keep itself stable on the Kago up to 20 degree and don’t get slipped. We have used high-speed motors in it so that it can complete its task with speed. Besides we have made an extension mechanism that is single activator to beat drum in the height. It implies that we have made and would run the entire extension with a single motor. After its extension, every stick would stop in front of its target drum. We have also set up a rotating mechanism with the structure which will rotate all the three drums with a single push.
Testing of Robots
The Robots were properly tested ahead of the competition. It was only after repeated trials that the final scheme for participation was approved. In one of the phases of the testing process, it was revealed that the rods on the Kago did not function properly, particularly when it had to pass mountain passes. As a result, its designing and scheme were re-adjusted and improved upon in order to make it work properly.
Copyrights @ Amer Rizwan
Copyrights @ Amer Rizwan
The glittering transparent waters of pristine lakes and rivers, lush green fertile slopes and plains, towering peaks, scintillating panorama, and the resulting aura of mystery make this land a beautiful mosaic of all the colours of rainbow. The exotic natural beauty is so captivating and enthralling that it leaves one spell bound.
The versatile flora and fauna and rich culture and traditional festivals make the future of this nation really promising. Keeping in line with the spirit of the land, people of the country are lively, energetic and art-loving.
The land is cradle to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Gandhara art and Buddhism are the most important components of this tradition.
The inhabitants of the land are rough and tough with a strong belief in their capabilities and a firm commitment to their purpose of making the nation even greater. The northern areas of the country can rightly boast of being one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is here that the second highest peak of the world K2 commands the admiration and awe from the tourists and locals alike.
Here is a wonderful opportunity to observe the rich culture and tradition of the land, particularly during the seasons of fairs and festivals – the dances and songs of the people of the land can easily enliven the dull spirits.
Shandur Polo Festival is one of the oldest sporting events that greet fans with its cultural hospitality and excite them with the thrilling moments of Polo matches. Shandur hosts thousands of spectators from inland and abroad on the world’s highest Polo ground each year in the month of July. The backdrop of Hindukush range, hospitality, scenic views, folk dances and some thrilling wild-Polo matches – different from the regular polo – on the world’s highest Polo ground is what makes it a thing apart.
This is Pakistan – Having emerged on 14 August 1947 as an independent state on the world map, the land is full of these spell-bound beauties and infinite opportunities.
This green, beautiful and modern capital of the country Islamabad itself is one of the signs of the greatness that future has in store for this nation.
College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) Rawalpindi is a constituent college of the National University of Science and Technology or NUST.
participating team. The team did undergo a lot of preparatory work ahead of the exercise. The team members held preparatory sessions to come up with something original. They used all the three robots – manual, kago, and digital – on the experimental basis. However, the team could not get through in the preliminary competition.
NED University of Science and Technology Karachi was the third participating team. The team members worked meticulously focusing on each and every detail of the robot making process. They did hold experimental demonstrations of all the three robots. Unfortunately in the preliminary competition their scheme could not work properly, so the team could not qualify for the 8th ABU Contest 2009 to be held at Tokyo.
Teams from all the three institutions participated in the contest with positive frames of mind yet in the final show it was EME College Rawalpindi which carried the day.
The constituent college i.e. EME offers study and research facilities in the disciplines of Electrical, Mechanical, Computer and Mechatronics Engineering. The laboratories are highly equipped with state of the art tools to help the researchers and engineers carry out research in various fields of engineering.
Participating in the first ABU Robot Contest 2002 Tokyo, the college won a special Toyota award.
Ahead of the competition, members of the participating team held marathon sessions and debates and held in-depth study to start working on the project with resourcefulness. Their brainstorming and interactive sessions proved instrumental in enabling them to come up with an original and successful scheme.
This year the theme of the contest is ‘Travel together for the victory drums’. The theme is in fact a game based on an imaginary journey of olden days using this Kago Palanquin. An automatic robot in the front and a manual robot in the rear shall cooperate to carry an automatic Traveller robot in a Kago to the goal with the aim of completing the journey before the other team. Various tasks stand in the way, including a Mountain Pass and Woods. The Kago and Traveller Robot must not be dropped. The Traveller Robot must beat the three Victory Drums when it reaches the Goal Zone. The three traditional Japanese drums are arranged vertically on a platform. The team that beats all three drums first is the winner.
The preparatory work was not easy. The winning team used computer graphics and simulation to get help from. The team has had a series of deliberation and discussion sessions using white boards and other aides. The team members put their heads together to come up with something original and competitive. Each one of them contributed with new ideas.
It required close concentration and singular dedication. Besides, ingenuity, the scheme required technical skills on the part of the members to work both as individuals as well as a group. Each one of the members took upon himself a specific assignment related to the main project to accomplish. Basically the team was self reliant in preparing the robot because they designed and made the parts themselves.
Before putting the robots in the contest, all the robots – manual, digital and drum-beater/Kago – were properly tested. It was ensured that the automatic robot in the front and a manual robot in the rear cooperate to carry the automatic Traveller robot in a Kago to the goal and to complete the journey quickly. In order to eliminate the margin of error, the scheme was tried again and again. Team members were alive to the fact that in the final competition, the team that beats all three three drums first would be the winner.
I am Syed Ghayur Ahmad, team member and manual operator of Robocon. I’ll operate this robot. In the beginning let me introduce the basic structure. Advantage of using this basic structure is that it is a ‘V’ shape apparatus designed especially to cover mountain passes. Its basic advantage is that when this structural robot will be pushing it from the rear, the front part of the structure would oppose that component and thus force thus applied, thereby making its movement stable and securing it from overturning. It would drive through this chain. You can see we have used chains – four by four. Again its biggest advantage would be that it would facilitate in the process of climbing the mountains. Now let me tell you something about the slider mechanism that we have designed to be placed on the structure. It can be moved in the linear direction; it has a rotator as well, and then again it can be moved in the linear direction. Its advantage is that when the manual robot from the rear would rotate or use its force in opposite direction, then it will automatically adjust itself accordingly.
The slider mechanism was fixed in the machine workshop of the college. It contains three sticks to beat the three respective target drums.
Comments by Khalid Ahmad
Team Member
The main brain of our robot is this micro-control board. We have used Pick 18F 4520. In the board, we have 13 ADC Channels, and 2 PWM cc modules which are used for motor drive. Our basic requirement was to take direct input from censors through our Controller/APCs and to manipulate them digitally. Basic reason for scheme is that our game field has multi colours which if manipulated through analogue would be problematic. The digital scheme has given our APCs a great edge. Now we can generate automatic referencing through programming.
Micro-control board that has ADC channels and modules help the motor to drive the machine. It has been designed and prepared by the team members.
Comments
Umar Ilyas
I am Umar Ilyas. I am Robocon’s Team leader. I’ll share with you something about the mechanical structure of the tableau robot. This is our tableau robot with a square base. We have used tyres here which have a tighter grip so that it may keep itself stable on the Kago up to 20 degree and don’t get slipped. We have used high-speed motors in it so that it can complete its task with speed. Besides we have made an extension mechanism that is single activator to beat drum in the height. It implies that we have made and would run the entire extension with a single motor. After its extension, every stick would stop in front of its target drum. We have also set up a rotating mechanism with the structure which will rotate all the three drums with a single push.
Testing of Robots
The Robots were properly tested ahead of the competition. It was only after repeated trials that the final scheme for participation was approved. In one of the phases of the testing process, it was revealed that the rods on the Kago did not function properly, particularly when it had to pass mountain passes. As a result, its designing and scheme were re-adjusted and improved upon in order to make it work properly.
Copyrights @ Amer Rizwan
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Why the Liberalist Pluralist Model?
Asia-Pacific
Why the Liberalist Pluralist Model?
By Amer Rizwan
By Amer Rizwan
The pluralist democracy is the most popular form of Government, in Europe and North America in particular, and the entire world in general. On the one hand it is being professed by the US and the Europe, and on the other hand the emerging Afro-Asian nations aspire to follow this model. Despite, its popularity all around, the Liberalist Pluralist Model is the target of criticism from the so many alternative approaches like Marxists, feminist and other approaches to politics and international relations. Again, because this theory/ model has close affinities with a few other approaches/theories to policy i.e. social democratic and New Rights model, it is in the fitness of things to take to some of the strands that make up the Liberal Pluralist Model.
To begin with, let us question the arguments of some theorists, who predicted in the recent past quite unjustifiably that the Liberal Pluralist model was outmoded and is therefore no longer being functional in most of the countries around the world.
The Liberal Pluralist state in its modern form is in fact complex societies with large scale political organizations. On the top of all this, pluralist democracy offers a process of competition and eventual accommodation to almost every interest of the society, and in the process, individual liberty is best guaranteed. In this context, the model was first theorized by a group of theorists working at Yale University – David Truman, Robert Dahl, and Charles Lindbolm. The group of academicians was known later as the Yale school of thought who advocated and supported the Pluralist Model of state on the basis of the Empirical Democratic Theory. They studied the role of political parities and other interest groups in the democratic societies such as US and UK. They ultimately found that due to the process of competition and the accommodation that the process offers to different groups and parties, this model of governance offers best guarantee of individual liberty. In this respect, this model is in sharp contrast with dictatorial and other forms of non-democratic governments. In one sense this model can rightly be called as "polyarchical state which is neutral in respect of the interests which it represents."
To begin with, let us question the arguments of some theorists, who predicted in the recent past quite unjustifiably that the Liberal Pluralist model was outmoded and is therefore no longer being functional in most of the countries around the world.
The Liberal Pluralist state in its modern form is in fact complex societies with large scale political organizations. On the top of all this, pluralist democracy offers a process of competition and eventual accommodation to almost every interest of the society, and in the process, individual liberty is best guaranteed. In this context, the model was first theorized by a group of theorists working at Yale University – David Truman, Robert Dahl, and Charles Lindbolm. The group of academicians was known later as the Yale school of thought who advocated and supported the Pluralist Model of state on the basis of the Empirical Democratic Theory. They studied the role of political parities and other interest groups in the democratic societies such as US and UK. They ultimately found that due to the process of competition and the accommodation that the process offers to different groups and parties, this model of governance offers best guarantee of individual liberty. In this respect, this model is in sharp contrast with dictatorial and other forms of non-democratic governments. In one sense this model can rightly be called as "polyarchical state which is neutral in respect of the interests which it represents."
In fact the Empirical Democratic Theory and Normative Political Philosophy should not be seen as mutually exclusive; they can be seen as working on the different angles of the same projects. This model corresponds to a "Liberal state which is neutral in respect of different conceptions of good life."
The third model that takes up the issue of the Liberal Pluralist Democracy is known as the Multi-culturalist Model proposed by Kymlicka. This model gives a conception of "Multicultural state which is neutral in respect of ethno-cultural bias."
The sources of liberalist political thought can be traced back to Locke and Montesquieu. Whereas the former is the forerunner in giving the idea of a government that held government in trust, the latter inspired the framers of the American constitution who were very skeptical of any attempt of concentration of executive, legislative and judicial powers in the same person or agency. As a whole, liberalist thoughts were the cornerstone of the US Declaration of Independence 1776 and the French Declaration of the rights of 1789.
Yale School has the traces of both the Protective as well as of the Development models of pluralism. Pluralism is either protective or developmental. Protective pluralism implies institutional arrangement primarily aimed at safeguarding the liberty of the individual. The developmental model is concerned with securing opportunities for individuals to participate in politics as well. While all the development models do value individual liberty, the Development Model also value participation for its own sake. Whereas Montesquieu and Madison are the central sources of protective pluralism, de Tocqueville and J.S. Mill are undoubtedly the sources of its development aspects.
A very important influence on the Yale school is that of the classical Utilitarianism. They believe that different interests must be accommodated in any pluralist democratic process. There must be broad consensus on the political values. Like any game, the game or competition of politics has its rules which must be faithfully observed by the competitors. In the absence of such a consensus on observing the rules, the political system would descend into chaos.
Then Yale school has been influenced by British pluralists like Laski who refuses to give the state the exclusive source of allegiance; they argue that other associations, organizations, family institutions etc play an equally important role in the life of the individuals, and thus in certain spheres the latter would prefer these non-state institutions instead the state itself. Laski lived in an age, when there were no transnational non-state actors which have posed a real threat to the very existence of the states themselves. The actions and interactions between the states and the non-actors such as Al-Qaeda, Taliban, LTTE, Hizbollah would have certainly reinforces his case; nay they would have certainly enriched the political jargon of his supporters.
American pragmatism, a philosophical school engaged with the idealistic and the scientific conceptions of the truth, has also been one of the sources for the Yale school.
We may get two different conceptions of pluralist state from the writings of the Yale school. There is either a "Responsive State," which while makes its policy in accordance with the demands of the competing interests or groups of the society. However, in this conception, the state is viewed as impartial and without interests of its own. It does mediate between and among the demands emanating from civil society, yet it does not take sides. Again there may be a "Broker State." In such a case, the pluralist state has a distinct interest of its own. In such a case, the state itself forges alliances with the key elements (most importantly the capitalist interests) in the society and governing in their favour). While theoretically speaking, all the Western democracies are Responsive Pluralist states, practically they all are "Broker Pluralist States" to a lesser or a greater extent. One of the initial debates of the Yale school focused on the debate between the passive or active role for ensuring fair competition between different interest groups.
In Rawl's Normative Political philosophy, the state is pluralistic in yet another sense i.e. it is pluralistic in a moral sense in respect of diverse ways of life or conceptions of good – liberty and opportunity, income and wealth – that it makes possible. The state as per Rawl and his followers has a normative concern. In this sense, the pluralist state fits in to the conception of the US state given by the outgoing Bush administration whose aim was decimating the forces of "evil" all around and taking American flag to every nook and corner of the world for furthering the cause of democracy all around.
The most pressing problem faced by the liberal state today relate to the problem of ethnic minorities within the state. A liberal state has to evolve principles of ethno-cultural policy that may orientate its policy in respect of different cultural minorities. Ironically the very election of a "coloured" Obama bespeaks of this model of pluralism in the US. This is the beauty of Pluralist model which, given sustenance, can promise representation and accommodation to all the interests and groups in the society. Mayawati may not become the prime minister in India as a result of the ongoing General Elections yet the coming of an untouchable to the national spotlight in a country that is rampant with deep class divisions is by no means any less significant development.
There are a number of different senses to the term liberal pluralism. There may be the pluralism of the political process analyzed by the Yale school e.g. David Truman, Robert Dahl, and Charles Lindbolm. Again, Pluralism may give a conception of the state in respect of different conceptions of good analyzed by the Liberal Equality thinkers such as Rawl. Yet again, there may be liberal pluralism of the multi-cultural state which has been theorized by Liberal theorists such as Kymlicka. There is a number of links between these different senses of the liberal pluralist polity.
In pluralist state, there is a number of centers of power in a society, policy is made and implemented, not by a single body but by a number of different bodies, including different departments, different braches of government, supranational and sub-national government and interest groups.
As discussed earlier, many scholars in the 70s predicted that the Liberalist theory of Politics was doomed to fail. However, the sea-changes that were brought about by the concomitant transformation of the world from the bipolar phase to the unipolar phase of world history belied those premonitions. However, one of the corollaries of these developments has inter alia been the erosion of rationality and sense of proportion in the Liberalist ranks itself. For instance, Francis Fukuyama's belief that Western forms of government, political economy and political community are the ultimate destination which the entire human race will eventually reach poses at least three challenges for orthodoxy within international relations.
One, political and economic development always terminates at liberal-capitalist democracy; that the Western path to modernity will eventually command universal consent; two, it also assumes that the West is the keeper of moral truths, which 'progress' will oblige all societies to observe, regardless of natural and cultural distinction; three, progress in human history can be measured by the elimination of conflict and the international adoption of the principles of legitimacy which have evolved over time in certain domestic political orders. This constitutes an 'inside-out' approach to international relations, where the exogenous behaviour of states can be explained by examining the endogenous political and economic dispositions. Doyle also claims that democracies are uniquely willing to eschew the use of force in their relations with one another. A claim spurned by Jacques Derrida and Alaxandre Kojeve by arguing that never have violence, inequality, exclusion, famine and the economic oppression affected as many human beings in the history of mankind as is being witnessed during the apogee of the liberal pluralist mode of democracy.
On the whole, the Liberal Pluralist Model has the greatest capacity to accommodate the myriad interests of the gregarious society, be it in the form of promising dividends to each and every interest groups or accruing multiple versions of good or even holding best future for all the ethnic groups within a state. Whereas the critics to the Liberal Capitalist Model may have overstated their case yet it is no denying the fact that even the exuberant utopians of the Liberalist camp also not done any justice to the idea. Practically speaking, numerous groups in a pluralist polity try to influence the policy making. So a policy emerges out of compromise. It means that there are "mutual adjustments" between various interest groups. It also presupposes a shared commitment on the part of all interested parties on reaching an agreement. The agreement is actually about the basic rules of the game/competition. Since the implementation of the policy is not permanent and it is followed by "trial and error method," there is always the possibility that "losers" in the game of influencing policy could win on a future occasion.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Gaza Campaign and Israel’s Security//The Seoul Times South Korea by AMER RIZWAN
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=8025
Monday, February 23, 2009
ASIA PACIFIC
February 23 2008.
Gaza Campaign and Israel’s Security
By:
Amer Rizwan[*]
Testaments are violated and solemn promises broken by the custodians of the Promised Land on the pretext of securing the state of Israel from the rockets and mortars and to restore Israel’s deterrent credibility which was seriously discredited by the Lebanon fiasco. However, it has been aptly argued by many analysts that the real intent and purpose of Israel’s unleashing this reign of terror is the creation of ‘Greater Israel’. It is hell bent upon controlling all of what was used to be known as the Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the West Bank. As per the pernicious scheme, the Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful of ‘disconnected and economically rippled enclaves’, one of which is Gaza. Israel would control the ‘borders around them, the air above and the water below them’ (John Meirsheimer, “Another War, Another Defeat”, The American Conservative, 2009.) One of the corollaries of the scheme is to instill in the minds of the Palestinians that they are the defeated people thereby having no choice but to surrender their future to the Israelis.
The primary aim of Israel’s military campaign was to neutralize Hamas’s ability to carry out rocket attacks against Israel, but it also led to the death of more than 1300 Palestinians, wounding even a greater number of them and destroying at least 41 Mosques besides wiping out the already antiquated and overloaded infrastructure in Gaza. Damage to vital infrastructure, including many roads, bridges, hospitals and power stations, has severely limited local capacity to care for the injured and displaced. UNDP has already warned that Gaza campaign and the collateral damage will have long term impact on Palestinians. Security Council Resolution 1860(2009) called on the international community to alleviate the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza. The United Nations is about to unveil a US $ 613 million aid appeal for war-torn Gaza. The funding will be used to provide food, shelter, healthcare and other assistance to victims of Israel's 22-day attack on the Palestinian territory, said John Holmes, chief of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. According to the agency, an assessment on the long-term needs in the conflict-hit territory is already underway. The Resolution called for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. As per the document released by the Department of Public Information, News & Media Division of the UNSC on 08 January 2009,
“Gravely concerned by the deepening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and the resulting heavy civilian casualties “since the refusal to extend the period of calm” between Israel and Hamas, the Security Council this evening stressed the urgency of and called for an “immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza”.
Adopting resolution 1860 (2009) by a vote of 14 in favour with the United States abstaining, the Council also expressed its grave concern at the escalation of violence and emphasized that Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected in the densely packed territory that has been the theatre of a deadly 13-day conflict between Israel Defence Forces and armed Hamas militants”.
Israeli claims have been that Hamas consistently violated the ceasefire that it so ‘diligently’ observed, therefore leaving it with no other choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into southern Israel. The claim does not hold water in the face of record. Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce. As per the understanding, Hamas was to stop missile attacks on Israel, and in return the latter was bound to ease its iron grip on Gaza. Ironically Israel tightened it further. (Henry Siegman, “Israel’s Lies”, London Review of Books, 29 January, 2009). This was confirmed by many neutral observers and NGOs operating there. Even Brigadier General (Res.) Shamuel Zakai, a former Commander of IDF’s Gaza Division, accused the Israeli government of making a ‘central error’ during the six months period of truce i.e. ‘failing to take advantage of the calm to improve, rather than markedly worsen, the economic plight of the Palestinians of the Strip……….you cannot just land blows, leave the Palestinians in Gaza in the economic distress, they are in, and expect that Hamas will just sit around and do nothing’ (Interview in Ha’artz on 22 December, 2008).
Israel would have tactically won the war against the defenceless Palestinians, but its strategy of making Israel securer is nowhere in sight. The timing of the war was in narrow terms well calculated by its architects. Many observers are of the opinion that even if Israel is successful in uprooting or expelling Hamas from Gaza, which is a remote possibility in the face of the ‘we are all Hamas’ phenomenon, it will be replaced by a more radical and ferocious organization taking up the flag of resistance. Such a group may establish its links with Al Qa’ida as well. Ironically some Israeli newspapers have absurdly attempted to create a kinship between Hamas and the latter. This is a mistake, says Ephraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad and Sharon’s national security adviser, because {The Hamas Political Bureau Chief, Khalid} Mashal’s declaration diametrically contradicts Al Qa’ida’s approach, and provides Israel with an opportunity, perhaps a historic one, to leverage it for the better. Most of the observers are of the opinion that the results of the campaign have been inconclusive for Israel – even in terms of its immediate aim of preventing Hamas or any other group to fire rockets into it. Its wider strategic implications, moreover, are far from comforting. ( Paul Rogers, “After Gaza: Israel’s Last Chance)
Israel has to understand that it can continue flouting international understandings and conventions in total disregard to the international public opinion yet it would do so only at the expense of its security both in the longer and shorter run, further vitiating the prospects of its viability and both external and internal security in the hostile environment. Gaza offensive meted out a serious setback to the euphoria in the Arab world in general, and Saudi Arab in particular about the success of the peace process spearheaded by Saudi Arabia. The latter urged its ally the United States to intervene in order to end Israel's attack on Gaza. "Superpowers should take responsibility to stop these attacks," the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing a telephone conversation between Saudi King Abdullah and U.S. President George W. Bush.
Israel is also fast losing its erstwhile friends and strategic allies. Its attempts to barter peace deals with the surrounding states may also flounder on this very count. Syrian sponsorship of Hamas has had an enormous impact on the group's operational capacities. Since the mid-1990s, Damascus has been the operational headquarters of the Hamas military wing and a nexus for the transfer of external funds to Hamas operatives in the territories. Syria and Syrian-occupied Lebanon have become major conduits for funneling weapons and explosives to Hamas and safe havens for training hundreds of its operatives. (Middle East Intelligence Unit. http://www.meib.org/articles/0210_s1.htm) Israel has the bargaining chip of Golan Heights which it had wrested and occupied from Syria in the 1967 War. In fact Turkey had been mediating the process between the two bitter enemies for a year. The idea was to create a more peaceful or at least predictable neighbourhood for Israel before tackling the increasingly complex Palestinian problem. Now in the wake of the Gaza offensive, the talks have been stalled and Syria has bitterly condemned the Israeli attacks.
Yet another fallout of the same had been a spectacular public criticism of Israel by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Turkey is one of the regional countries that have the closest ties with Israel besides Egypt. It has struck arms procurement deals with Israel as well. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan went to the extent of demanding American President to declare Israel as a terrorist state for its unleashing a reign of terror on the innocent civilian Palestinians. As a mark of protest against the partisan treatment/behaviour of the moderator of the programme at the World Economic Forum, the Prime Minister walked out of the debate. Later in an interview to the Newsweek, Tayyip Erdogan termed Gaza as an ‘open air prison’. In response to a query, he said, ‘Hamas is a political party and not an “arm of Iran” or for that matter of Syria. As a matter of fact, the international community has not respected the Palestinians’ verdict. On the one side, it wishes to flourish democracy in the Middle East, and on the other it doesn’t respect the ballot box results.
"If the whole world had given [Hamas] the chance of becoming a political player maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the elections that they won."
Hamas won the Palestinian Authority legislative elections against the rival Fatah faction in a landslide victory in January 2006
Earlier, Shimon Peres, the Israeli President speaking in the forum held Hamas responsible for the mess in and around Gaza.” The USIP Special Report ‘The Future of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ by Yossi Alpher had predicted a downward spiral in Arab support for Hamas only if Israel could reach peace agreements with Beirut and Damascus. Gaza attacks have already blurred these prospects.
The widespread anger, agitation and resentment in the Muslim World is a natural consequence of this act of indiscriminate shelling on the innocent Palestinians yet the initial adverse reaction came from South America. Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia were the first countries to condemn Israel's massacres in Gaza. Venezuela declared the Israeli ambassador as a persona non grata ordering to him to leave the country as a mark of protest over this savagery. “Israel is creating a holocaust in Palestine; it has become a genocide country’, said furious Chavez. Soon Bolivia followed the suit. Bolivian President Evo Morales demanded that Israeli Government should be brought to justice in the International Court of Justice.
Israeli used its full military might which backfired almost in the same fashion as it did in its attack on Lebanon. Its international standing is at stake; UN resolution 1860(2009) must be an eye-opener for the Israelis. Israel has created new enemies and has lost many old guards. Although Hamas is perceived a common threat by Egypt and Israel yet the latter is also cognizant of the fact that the smuggling route for the provision of ammunition and arms to Hamas had been from the Egyptian Senia Peninsula. The rulers in Cairo have a core strategic interest in ensuring that Hamas remains boxed in. The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas emerged, is bound to exploit the ongoing transition in the Egytian polity. The sights of Muslim Brotherhood’s leading protests in the name of Hamas are quite common there. Similarly the ruling junta of Jordon has much to lose with the growth of Hamas, not because its progenitor Muslim Brotherhood has a stronger base there in Jordon, but also because it believes that on account of its sympathy-base, the Group can pose a threat to the security and stability of the country. However, if we are to believe the Americans on their promises of democratizing the Middle East, then there is no reason that in one form or the other, groups like Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood would make their presence feel in their respective governments’ apparatuses. The eventual result would be, as many western analysts apprehends, a more insecure Israel. One of the unfortunate corollaries of the development may well be the US reneging on its promises.
However, Israel is between the devil and the deep sea. It has to make difficult comprises on traditional security fronts with Egypt, Jordon and a hawkish Syria. The recent developments related to, and leading up to, Gaza offensive have convinced Israel to change its approach at least to Sinai to start with. That is why it has shown its readiness to discuss the remilitarization (two Egyptian military battalions) of an area of Senai adjacent to the 12 Kilometer Gaza border, and on a slightly larger scale (3000 Egyptian soldiers, with the armored vehicles), of the 250 kilometer long Israel-Egypt border. Israel now relatively unconcerned with the Egyptian military threat, is also considering from the Philadelphi road and allowing Egypt both to police the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Senai. Israel is also considering to examine a proposal whereby Palestinian demographic pressures in Gaza would be alleviated, by Egypt ceding to Palestine the adjacent northeast corner of Senai. Egypt would be compensated by Israel with a portion of southern Negev and land access across the Negev to Jordon. Similar options are weighed vis-à-vis Syria as well i.e. bartering away peace deals by making territorial compensations. (The USIP Special Report ‘The Future of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ by Yossi Alpher). The crux of the argument is that unless Israel is ready to give its due to Palestine, it would continue being entangled in the vicious mechanisms with the neighboring countries yet peace and security would remain elusive.
Gaza campaign has enthused new vigour in the Palestinian intifada. In the longer run, it will lead to cracks in the body politic of Israel with a divide between the Israeli citizens who would perceive security in ‘lebensraum’ and the ones who would prefer living in relatively securer and racially ‘pure’ enclaves. This syndrome is called by many as ‘Territory versus Demography Divide’.
And last but not the least, Gaza offensive and the power vacuum has already provided historic opportunity to extra-regional powers such as Iran to increase its influence and stature in the region. Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran has already stated that his county will support Hamas until the collapse of Israel. Regarding conflict in the Gaza Strip, Iran has been sharply vocal in its criticism of Israel and has offered support to Hamas. Many Western analysts agree there are links between Iran and Hamas, but they differ about the nature and depth of those ties.
The future scenario can be grimmer for Israel, in case democracy was not given a fair chance to take its natural course in the due time. Any broad-based setups in the neighbourhood of Israel would have the likes of Hamas as their essential components. Again such dispensations would not be able to ignore popular aspirations on many Arab-Israeli issues. So initially the kicking off democracy in the region would be a painful choice for Israel and the West. But by and by when the Arabs would start reaping the fruits of liberty, equality, development and prosperity, the transformation would pay its dividends in terms of greater understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. However, Israel, the US and the West have to live to learn with these groups because, after all, the rightist and the Zionist elements have the lion’s share in Israel’s governmental apparatus as well. With successive elections, more dynamic and enlightened leaders could emerge thorough continuous democratic processes who would be more responsive to the genuine social needs and issues rather than to the extraneous factors. In addition, if the Israelis chose to send leaders that are not Palestinians-bashing demagogues and the ones who extend an olive branch to the Palestinians in particular and the Arabs in general, then the latter may also gradually change their outlook and send moderate leadership to the corridors of power.
[*] The author is the Ph-D Scholar in the Department of International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad. Pakistan. He can be contacted on amerrizwan@gmail.com
By:
Amer Rizwan[*]
Testaments are violated and solemn promises broken by the custodians of the Promised Land on the pretext of securing the state of Israel from the rockets and mortars and to restore Israel’s deterrent credibility which was seriously discredited by the Lebanon fiasco. However, it has been aptly argued by many analysts that the real intent and purpose of Israel’s unleashing this reign of terror is the creation of ‘Greater Israel’. It is hell bent upon controlling all of what was used to be known as the Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the West Bank. As per the pernicious scheme, the Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful of ‘disconnected and economically rippled enclaves’, one of which is Gaza. Israel would control the ‘borders around them, the air above and the water below them’ (John Meirsheimer, “Another War, Another Defeat”, The American Conservative, 2009.) One of the corollaries of the scheme is to instill in the minds of the Palestinians that they are the defeated people thereby having no choice but to surrender their future to the Israelis.
The primary aim of Israel’s military campaign was to neutralize Hamas’s ability to carry out rocket attacks against Israel, but it also led to the death of more than 1300 Palestinians, wounding even a greater number of them and destroying at least 41 Mosques besides wiping out the already antiquated and overloaded infrastructure in Gaza. Damage to vital infrastructure, including many roads, bridges, hospitals and power stations, has severely limited local capacity to care for the injured and displaced. UNDP has already warned that Gaza campaign and the collateral damage will have long term impact on Palestinians. Security Council Resolution 1860(2009) called on the international community to alleviate the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza. The United Nations is about to unveil a US $ 613 million aid appeal for war-torn Gaza. The funding will be used to provide food, shelter, healthcare and other assistance to victims of Israel's 22-day attack on the Palestinian territory, said John Holmes, chief of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. According to the agency, an assessment on the long-term needs in the conflict-hit territory is already underway. The Resolution called for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. As per the document released by the Department of Public Information, News & Media Division of the UNSC on 08 January 2009,
“Gravely concerned by the deepening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and the resulting heavy civilian casualties “since the refusal to extend the period of calm” between Israel and Hamas, the Security Council this evening stressed the urgency of and called for an “immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza”.
Adopting resolution 1860 (2009) by a vote of 14 in favour with the United States abstaining, the Council also expressed its grave concern at the escalation of violence and emphasized that Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected in the densely packed territory that has been the theatre of a deadly 13-day conflict between Israel Defence Forces and armed Hamas militants”.
Israeli claims have been that Hamas consistently violated the ceasefire that it so ‘diligently’ observed, therefore leaving it with no other choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into southern Israel. The claim does not hold water in the face of record. Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce. As per the understanding, Hamas was to stop missile attacks on Israel, and in return the latter was bound to ease its iron grip on Gaza. Ironically Israel tightened it further. (Henry Siegman, “Israel’s Lies”, London Review of Books, 29 January, 2009). This was confirmed by many neutral observers and NGOs operating there. Even Brigadier General (Res.) Shamuel Zakai, a former Commander of IDF’s Gaza Division, accused the Israeli government of making a ‘central error’ during the six months period of truce i.e. ‘failing to take advantage of the calm to improve, rather than markedly worsen, the economic plight of the Palestinians of the Strip……….you cannot just land blows, leave the Palestinians in Gaza in the economic distress, they are in, and expect that Hamas will just sit around and do nothing’ (Interview in Ha’artz on 22 December, 2008).
Israel would have tactically won the war against the defenceless Palestinians, but its strategy of making Israel securer is nowhere in sight. The timing of the war was in narrow terms well calculated by its architects. Many observers are of the opinion that even if Israel is successful in uprooting or expelling Hamas from Gaza, which is a remote possibility in the face of the ‘we are all Hamas’ phenomenon, it will be replaced by a more radical and ferocious organization taking up the flag of resistance. Such a group may establish its links with Al Qa’ida as well. Ironically some Israeli newspapers have absurdly attempted to create a kinship between Hamas and the latter. This is a mistake, says Ephraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad and Sharon’s national security adviser, because {The Hamas Political Bureau Chief, Khalid} Mashal’s declaration diametrically contradicts Al Qa’ida’s approach, and provides Israel with an opportunity, perhaps a historic one, to leverage it for the better. Most of the observers are of the opinion that the results of the campaign have been inconclusive for Israel – even in terms of its immediate aim of preventing Hamas or any other group to fire rockets into it. Its wider strategic implications, moreover, are far from comforting. ( Paul Rogers, “After Gaza: Israel’s Last Chance)
Israel has to understand that it can continue flouting international understandings and conventions in total disregard to the international public opinion yet it would do so only at the expense of its security both in the longer and shorter run, further vitiating the prospects of its viability and both external and internal security in the hostile environment. Gaza offensive meted out a serious setback to the euphoria in the Arab world in general, and Saudi Arab in particular about the success of the peace process spearheaded by Saudi Arabia. The latter urged its ally the United States to intervene in order to end Israel's attack on Gaza. "Superpowers should take responsibility to stop these attacks," the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing a telephone conversation between Saudi King Abdullah and U.S. President George W. Bush.
Israel is also fast losing its erstwhile friends and strategic allies. Its attempts to barter peace deals with the surrounding states may also flounder on this very count. Syrian sponsorship of Hamas has had an enormous impact on the group's operational capacities. Since the mid-1990s, Damascus has been the operational headquarters of the Hamas military wing and a nexus for the transfer of external funds to Hamas operatives in the territories. Syria and Syrian-occupied Lebanon have become major conduits for funneling weapons and explosives to Hamas and safe havens for training hundreds of its operatives. (Middle East Intelligence Unit. http://www.meib.org/articles/0210_s1.htm) Israel has the bargaining chip of Golan Heights which it had wrested and occupied from Syria in the 1967 War. In fact Turkey had been mediating the process between the two bitter enemies for a year. The idea was to create a more peaceful or at least predictable neighbourhood for Israel before tackling the increasingly complex Palestinian problem. Now in the wake of the Gaza offensive, the talks have been stalled and Syria has bitterly condemned the Israeli attacks.
Yet another fallout of the same had been a spectacular public criticism of Israel by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Turkey is one of the regional countries that have the closest ties with Israel besides Egypt. It has struck arms procurement deals with Israel as well. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan went to the extent of demanding American President to declare Israel as a terrorist state for its unleashing a reign of terror on the innocent civilian Palestinians. As a mark of protest against the partisan treatment/behaviour of the moderator of the programme at the World Economic Forum, the Prime Minister walked out of the debate. Later in an interview to the Newsweek, Tayyip Erdogan termed Gaza as an ‘open air prison’. In response to a query, he said, ‘Hamas is a political party and not an “arm of Iran” or for that matter of Syria. As a matter of fact, the international community has not respected the Palestinians’ verdict. On the one side, it wishes to flourish democracy in the Middle East, and on the other it doesn’t respect the ballot box results.
"If the whole world had given [Hamas] the chance of becoming a political player maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the elections that they won."
Hamas won the Palestinian Authority legislative elections against the rival Fatah faction in a landslide victory in January 2006
Earlier, Shimon Peres, the Israeli President speaking in the forum held Hamas responsible for the mess in and around Gaza.” The USIP Special Report ‘The Future of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ by Yossi Alpher had predicted a downward spiral in Arab support for Hamas only if Israel could reach peace agreements with Beirut and Damascus. Gaza attacks have already blurred these prospects.
The widespread anger, agitation and resentment in the Muslim World is a natural consequence of this act of indiscriminate shelling on the innocent Palestinians yet the initial adverse reaction came from South America. Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia were the first countries to condemn Israel's massacres in Gaza. Venezuela declared the Israeli ambassador as a persona non grata ordering to him to leave the country as a mark of protest over this savagery. “Israel is creating a holocaust in Palestine; it has become a genocide country’, said furious Chavez. Soon Bolivia followed the suit. Bolivian President Evo Morales demanded that Israeli Government should be brought to justice in the International Court of Justice.
Israeli used its full military might which backfired almost in the same fashion as it did in its attack on Lebanon. Its international standing is at stake; UN resolution 1860(2009) must be an eye-opener for the Israelis. Israel has created new enemies and has lost many old guards. Although Hamas is perceived a common threat by Egypt and Israel yet the latter is also cognizant of the fact that the smuggling route for the provision of ammunition and arms to Hamas had been from the Egyptian Senia Peninsula. The rulers in Cairo have a core strategic interest in ensuring that Hamas remains boxed in. The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas emerged, is bound to exploit the ongoing transition in the Egytian polity. The sights of Muslim Brotherhood’s leading protests in the name of Hamas are quite common there. Similarly the ruling junta of Jordon has much to lose with the growth of Hamas, not because its progenitor Muslim Brotherhood has a stronger base there in Jordon, but also because it believes that on account of its sympathy-base, the Group can pose a threat to the security and stability of the country. However, if we are to believe the Americans on their promises of democratizing the Middle East, then there is no reason that in one form or the other, groups like Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood would make their presence feel in their respective governments’ apparatuses. The eventual result would be, as many western analysts apprehends, a more insecure Israel. One of the unfortunate corollaries of the development may well be the US reneging on its promises.
However, Israel is between the devil and the deep sea. It has to make difficult comprises on traditional security fronts with Egypt, Jordon and a hawkish Syria. The recent developments related to, and leading up to, Gaza offensive have convinced Israel to change its approach at least to Sinai to start with. That is why it has shown its readiness to discuss the remilitarization (two Egyptian military battalions) of an area of Senai adjacent to the 12 Kilometer Gaza border, and on a slightly larger scale (3000 Egyptian soldiers, with the armored vehicles), of the 250 kilometer long Israel-Egypt border. Israel now relatively unconcerned with the Egyptian military threat, is also considering from the Philadelphi road and allowing Egypt both to police the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Senai. Israel is also considering to examine a proposal whereby Palestinian demographic pressures in Gaza would be alleviated, by Egypt ceding to Palestine the adjacent northeast corner of Senai. Egypt would be compensated by Israel with a portion of southern Negev and land access across the Negev to Jordon. Similar options are weighed vis-à-vis Syria as well i.e. bartering away peace deals by making territorial compensations. (The USIP Special Report ‘The Future of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ by Yossi Alpher). The crux of the argument is that unless Israel is ready to give its due to Palestine, it would continue being entangled in the vicious mechanisms with the neighboring countries yet peace and security would remain elusive.
Gaza campaign has enthused new vigour in the Palestinian intifada. In the longer run, it will lead to cracks in the body politic of Israel with a divide between the Israeli citizens who would perceive security in ‘lebensraum’ and the ones who would prefer living in relatively securer and racially ‘pure’ enclaves. This syndrome is called by many as ‘Territory versus Demography Divide’.
And last but not the least, Gaza offensive and the power vacuum has already provided historic opportunity to extra-regional powers such as Iran to increase its influence and stature in the region. Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran has already stated that his county will support Hamas until the collapse of Israel. Regarding conflict in the Gaza Strip, Iran has been sharply vocal in its criticism of Israel and has offered support to Hamas. Many Western analysts agree there are links between Iran and Hamas, but they differ about the nature and depth of those ties.
The future scenario can be grimmer for Israel, in case democracy was not given a fair chance to take its natural course in the due time. Any broad-based setups in the neighbourhood of Israel would have the likes of Hamas as their essential components. Again such dispensations would not be able to ignore popular aspirations on many Arab-Israeli issues. So initially the kicking off democracy in the region would be a painful choice for Israel and the West. But by and by when the Arabs would start reaping the fruits of liberty, equality, development and prosperity, the transformation would pay its dividends in terms of greater understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. However, Israel, the US and the West have to live to learn with these groups because, after all, the rightist and the Zionist elements have the lion’s share in Israel’s governmental apparatus as well. With successive elections, more dynamic and enlightened leaders could emerge thorough continuous democratic processes who would be more responsive to the genuine social needs and issues rather than to the extraneous factors. In addition, if the Israelis chose to send leaders that are not Palestinians-bashing demagogues and the ones who extend an olive branch to the Palestinians in particular and the Arabs in general, then the latter may also gradually change their outlook and send moderate leadership to the corridors of power.
[*] The author is the Ph-D Scholar in the Department of International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad. Pakistan. He can be contacted on amerrizwan@gmail.com
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
And you calling me colored?? (POEM) By an African Child
And you calling me colored?? (POEM) By an African Child
When I born, I black.When I grow up, I black.When I go in sun, I black.When I scared, I black.When I sick, I black.And when I die, I still black.
And you white people.When you born, you pink.When you grow up, you white.When you go in sun, you red.When you cold, you blue.When you scared, you yellow.When you sick, you greenAnd when you die, you grey…
And you calling me colored??
Written by an African child and nominated by UN as the Best Poem of 2006.
When I born, I black.When I grow up, I black.When I go in sun, I black.When I scared, I black.When I sick, I black.And when I die, I still black.
And you white people.When you born, you pink.When you grow up, you white.When you go in sun, you red.When you cold, you blue.When you scared, you yellow.When you sick, you greenAnd when you die, you grey…
And you calling me colored??
Written by an African child and nominated by UN as the Best Poem of 2006.
HAPPY NEW YEAR By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
HAPPY NEW YEAR By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of a year
Friday, December 26, 2008
THE WINE OF NIGHT by LOUIS UNTERMEYER
THE WINE OF NIGHT by LOUIS UNTERMEYER
COME, drink the mystic wine of Night,
Brimming with silence and the stars,
While earth, bathed in this holy light,
Is seen without its scars.
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as Silently steal away.
Drink in the daring and the dews,
The calm winds and the restless gleam
This is the draught that Beauty brews;
Drink it is the Dream . . .
Drink, oh my soul, and do not yield
These solitudes, this wild-rose air,
Shall strengthen thee, shall be thy shield,
Against a world s despair.
Oh, quaff this stirrup-cup of stars,
Trembling with hope and high desire
Then back into the hopeless wars
With faith and fire!
COME, drink the mystic wine of Night,
Brimming with silence and the stars,
While earth, bathed in this holy light,
Is seen without its scars.
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as Silently steal away.
Drink in the daring and the dews,
The calm winds and the restless gleam
This is the draught that Beauty brews;
Drink it is the Dream . . .
Drink, oh my soul, and do not yield
These solitudes, this wild-rose air,
Shall strengthen thee, shall be thy shield,
Against a world s despair.
Oh, quaff this stirrup-cup of stars,
Trembling with hope and high desire
Then back into the hopeless wars
With faith and fire!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
John Dyer, Grongar Hill (l. 93) AND SEE THE RIVERS HOW THEY RUN
JOHN DYER, GRONGAR HILL (l. 93) AND SEE THE RIVERS HOW THEY RUN
And see the rivers how they run
Through woods and meads, in shade and sun,
Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,--
Wave succeeding wave, they go
A various journey to the deep,
Like human life to endless sleep!
And see the rivers how they run
Through woods and meads, in shade and sun,
Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,--
Wave succeeding wave, they go
A various journey to the deep,
Like human life to endless sleep!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Beyond Ritualism By Amer Rizwan
THE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT
THE POST ISLAMABAD
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Far away from the vicious murk of Pakistani politics, when the country was reeling under the emergency rule and the legal fraternity was bent upon redeeming the country from the total abyss, I was busy observing a more dynamic, versatile and enriching experience of life. My spiritual pursuits at the religious capital of the Muslim Ummah were profound, far reaching, rewarding and incredibly soothing though my attempts at reaching the spiritual status were flawed and far from prefect almost reveled in the emollient power of the zamzam whose holy aroma bespoke a spiritual magnetism exercising a spontaneous and concomitant pull and drawing you closer to the divine path traversed thousands years ago by the prophets of God and their followers.Hajj or pilgrimage to Makkah is one of the five pillars of Islam. Hajj was made obligatory in the 9th year of Hijra. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) sent off 300 Muslims under the leadership of Hazrat Abubakr Siddique (may Allah be pleased with him) to Makkah so that they could perform Hajj. The great extravaganza, actually one of the five obligations for a true Muslim to observe, is inter alia meant to commemorate the sacrifice offered to Allah Almighty by Ibrahim, His Prophet. On this day Muslims sacrifice a goat to commemorate the sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim, who willingly agreed to kill his son at the behest of God. However, Allah Almighty replaced his son with a lamb, which was slaughtered instead. The ancestry of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH is traced to the son of Prophet Ibrahim i.e. Prophet Ismail. The Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) imparted the event his own universal and eternal message of love, sagacity, tolerance and fraternity. The last sermon of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) made on the eve of Hujjut-ul-Wida or the Last Pilgrimage dwelled upon these core universal principles, which together make up the first Universal Charter of Human Rights. It is primarily this aspect of Hajj that has intrigued me to write something on. As a matter of fact, coming across at Makkah, as well as at Medina, millions of people of different races and colours, preoccupied with a common holy purpose, offers a unique mosaic, nay it provides a rare and unique picture of unity in diversity. Tolerance, sympathy, and love far above the petty issues of mundane life is rarely observed elsewhere. Therefore, I condescend to state that Hajj model with slight modifications can be applied at the global level for a peaceful international system. Labeling it an Islamic World Order would draw swarm of critics from all quarters, but what is name, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.It is here that my spiritual sojourn, a great and the most cherished pilgrimage, has also turned into a yet another rich experience – an experience that enabled me to develop a greater understanding of different peoples and different races and colours. The Muslims coming here belong to different nooks and corners of the world; they are white, black, brown and colored; they are both Arabs and Ajams; they are young and old, male and female, but primarily they are human beings, and I tried to gather from their demeanors and modes of prayers their sensibilities, sensitivities, their likes and likes. It is a rare cosmopolitan experience, not observable even in the US and UK with distinctive idiosyncratic national traits melting mysteriously into an ocean of compassion, love and tolerance. It is only after wading through this stream of purity that a totally different human being with a better grasp of men and matter would emerge.By showing love and respect to each and every human being irrespective of his race, colour, language, sect, difference in details of rituals, there may emerge a greater flexibility in the outlook of the pilgrim. This would also imply love and tolerance to humanity principle. Instead of clash of civilisation and peoples, this would create a better understanding and accommodation among peoples of the world. The pleasantly smiling Turks, the devoted and genial Malaysians, the ascetic Indonesians, the numinous Persians, the devout South Asians; all are frantically bent upon pleasing their Creator and his creatures.A very interesting aspect was the Indian and Pakistani Muslims greeting each other as if geographical barriers have not been able to rob them of their commonalities. Kashmiris of the other side of the Line of Control (LoC) would embrace Pakistanis as there is no other place under the sun where they could do so openly. Turks would consider Pakistanis as their brothers and show open admiration for Pakistanis. Most of the pilgrims are acquainted with only the literary archaic Arabic written in the Holy Quran, but here they come across the more crude, spoken form being used in a variety of dialects. At times, this crudeness seems unpleasant and jarring to the non-native listeners, but continuous interaction with the locals for a few days mitigates this impression.There are more lessons in store for us in the Hajj than the bare eye can unfold. Here in Pakistan, we declare, every digression in terms of details of your prayers something as heresy. During Hajj, on the contrary, each and every devotee, irrespective of his school of thought, sect or mode of prayer work ecstatically and assiduously to try to please Allah Almighty whether or not by offering ‘Rafa’a Yadain’ or either by whispering ‘Amen’ or by saying it loudly. An interesting but very important lesson comes home i.e. attempts may be faulty, procedures may be shabby; the weak mortal body may also not be able to move in tandem with the spiritual onus, yet as long as there is singular concentration and devotion to purpose, one has every hope of being blessed and redeemed. Again, this ecstatic devotion is so absorbing and intoxicating that it does not allow one to observe and ponder over one’s own worshipping details what to speak of trying to correct those of others. Owing to the tremendous rush of devotees, at times, there is no option except to pass before a praying pilgrim, but neither of them would indulge in the blame-game. Hajj has also lesson in store for us in discipline, punctuality and civic sense – the hallmarks of the Islamic society of yore. As long as they wielded these time-honoured universal values, they continued to shine on the galaxy of science, technology, medicine and arts, but no sooner had they shunned the door to further quest and research, than they lagged behind in almost every walk of life. Let me reiterate that the unity in diversity is the true lesson given by Hajj. Allah could have filled the earth and heavens with malaik praising Him round-the-clock restlessly. But he created a versatile and multi-coloured world. This versatility is reflected in the flora and fauna, and in different physiognomies and colours of human beings. The human civilisation would prosper, as long as we respect the natural diversity, dynamism and versatility. We cannot subject “others” to total extinction, nor even vice versa, so why not to live side by side peacefully while developing greater understanding for the fellow beings. There is no denying the fact that Hajj is the best forum for doing so.It is high time, we move beyond the mere ritualistic aspects of Hajj to its real intent and purpose. And more than anything else, the overhauling process must bring about positive changes in the life of the individual with a better understanding of others. The harmonious social life should have far-reaching implications. This model can/should be magnified and applied internationally. By laying emphasis on the practical experiences of Hajj, I by no means underestimate the ritualistic dimensions of Hajj, nay their observance in accordance with religious principles and guidelines can bring about the much desired result. The writer is a Ph-D Candidate in the Department of International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad
THE POST ISLAMABAD
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Far away from the vicious murk of Pakistani politics, when the country was reeling under the emergency rule and the legal fraternity was bent upon redeeming the country from the total abyss, I was busy observing a more dynamic, versatile and enriching experience of life. My spiritual pursuits at the religious capital of the Muslim Ummah were profound, far reaching, rewarding and incredibly soothing though my attempts at reaching the spiritual status were flawed and far from prefect almost reveled in the emollient power of the zamzam whose holy aroma bespoke a spiritual magnetism exercising a spontaneous and concomitant pull and drawing you closer to the divine path traversed thousands years ago by the prophets of God and their followers.Hajj or pilgrimage to Makkah is one of the five pillars of Islam. Hajj was made obligatory in the 9th year of Hijra. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) sent off 300 Muslims under the leadership of Hazrat Abubakr Siddique (may Allah be pleased with him) to Makkah so that they could perform Hajj. The great extravaganza, actually one of the five obligations for a true Muslim to observe, is inter alia meant to commemorate the sacrifice offered to Allah Almighty by Ibrahim, His Prophet. On this day Muslims sacrifice a goat to commemorate the sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim, who willingly agreed to kill his son at the behest of God. However, Allah Almighty replaced his son with a lamb, which was slaughtered instead. The ancestry of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH is traced to the son of Prophet Ibrahim i.e. Prophet Ismail. The Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) imparted the event his own universal and eternal message of love, sagacity, tolerance and fraternity. The last sermon of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) made on the eve of Hujjut-ul-Wida or the Last Pilgrimage dwelled upon these core universal principles, which together make up the first Universal Charter of Human Rights. It is primarily this aspect of Hajj that has intrigued me to write something on. As a matter of fact, coming across at Makkah, as well as at Medina, millions of people of different races and colours, preoccupied with a common holy purpose, offers a unique mosaic, nay it provides a rare and unique picture of unity in diversity. Tolerance, sympathy, and love far above the petty issues of mundane life is rarely observed elsewhere. Therefore, I condescend to state that Hajj model with slight modifications can be applied at the global level for a peaceful international system. Labeling it an Islamic World Order would draw swarm of critics from all quarters, but what is name, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.It is here that my spiritual sojourn, a great and the most cherished pilgrimage, has also turned into a yet another rich experience – an experience that enabled me to develop a greater understanding of different peoples and different races and colours. The Muslims coming here belong to different nooks and corners of the world; they are white, black, brown and colored; they are both Arabs and Ajams; they are young and old, male and female, but primarily they are human beings, and I tried to gather from their demeanors and modes of prayers their sensibilities, sensitivities, their likes and likes. It is a rare cosmopolitan experience, not observable even in the US and UK with distinctive idiosyncratic national traits melting mysteriously into an ocean of compassion, love and tolerance. It is only after wading through this stream of purity that a totally different human being with a better grasp of men and matter would emerge.By showing love and respect to each and every human being irrespective of his race, colour, language, sect, difference in details of rituals, there may emerge a greater flexibility in the outlook of the pilgrim. This would also imply love and tolerance to humanity principle. Instead of clash of civilisation and peoples, this would create a better understanding and accommodation among peoples of the world. The pleasantly smiling Turks, the devoted and genial Malaysians, the ascetic Indonesians, the numinous Persians, the devout South Asians; all are frantically bent upon pleasing their Creator and his creatures.A very interesting aspect was the Indian and Pakistani Muslims greeting each other as if geographical barriers have not been able to rob them of their commonalities. Kashmiris of the other side of the Line of Control (LoC) would embrace Pakistanis as there is no other place under the sun where they could do so openly. Turks would consider Pakistanis as their brothers and show open admiration for Pakistanis. Most of the pilgrims are acquainted with only the literary archaic Arabic written in the Holy Quran, but here they come across the more crude, spoken form being used in a variety of dialects. At times, this crudeness seems unpleasant and jarring to the non-native listeners, but continuous interaction with the locals for a few days mitigates this impression.There are more lessons in store for us in the Hajj than the bare eye can unfold. Here in Pakistan, we declare, every digression in terms of details of your prayers something as heresy. During Hajj, on the contrary, each and every devotee, irrespective of his school of thought, sect or mode of prayer work ecstatically and assiduously to try to please Allah Almighty whether or not by offering ‘Rafa’a Yadain’ or either by whispering ‘Amen’ or by saying it loudly. An interesting but very important lesson comes home i.e. attempts may be faulty, procedures may be shabby; the weak mortal body may also not be able to move in tandem with the spiritual onus, yet as long as there is singular concentration and devotion to purpose, one has every hope of being blessed and redeemed. Again, this ecstatic devotion is so absorbing and intoxicating that it does not allow one to observe and ponder over one’s own worshipping details what to speak of trying to correct those of others. Owing to the tremendous rush of devotees, at times, there is no option except to pass before a praying pilgrim, but neither of them would indulge in the blame-game. Hajj has also lesson in store for us in discipline, punctuality and civic sense – the hallmarks of the Islamic society of yore. As long as they wielded these time-honoured universal values, they continued to shine on the galaxy of science, technology, medicine and arts, but no sooner had they shunned the door to further quest and research, than they lagged behind in almost every walk of life. Let me reiterate that the unity in diversity is the true lesson given by Hajj. Allah could have filled the earth and heavens with malaik praising Him round-the-clock restlessly. But he created a versatile and multi-coloured world. This versatility is reflected in the flora and fauna, and in different physiognomies and colours of human beings. The human civilisation would prosper, as long as we respect the natural diversity, dynamism and versatility. We cannot subject “others” to total extinction, nor even vice versa, so why not to live side by side peacefully while developing greater understanding for the fellow beings. There is no denying the fact that Hajj is the best forum for doing so.It is high time, we move beyond the mere ritualistic aspects of Hajj to its real intent and purpose. And more than anything else, the overhauling process must bring about positive changes in the life of the individual with a better understanding of others. The harmonious social life should have far-reaching implications. This model can/should be magnified and applied internationally. By laying emphasis on the practical experiences of Hajj, I by no means underestimate the ritualistic dimensions of Hajj, nay their observance in accordance with religious principles and guidelines can bring about the much desired result. The writer is a Ph-D Candidate in the Department of International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Letter from Barack Obama on his Muslim Heritage by Barack Obama San Francisco , California , USA
- This letter was circulated on the net before Nov 4 elections and it has surfaced again which shows that the undercurrent of objections to Obama's Muslim name and heritage still is current if not strong as before. However, it makes an interesting reading:
Letter from Barack Obama on his Muslim Heritage
There has been a lot made in the recent weeks about the Muslim history of my family. Some of the things that have been said are true, others are false, so I am writing this letter to clear up the misunderstandings on this issue.
Yes, it is true that I have a name that is common amongst Kenyan Muslims where my father came from and that my middle name is Hussein. Barack is a name which means "blessing" and Hussein is a masculine form of the word beauty. Since there is nothing inherently wrong with the concept of blessings from God and the beauty He creates I fail to see the problem with these names. Some will say wouldn't it be a problem to have a president with a name similar to the deposed and executed former dictator of Iraq ? My answer to this is simply no; rather it is the strength and beauty of America that the son of an African man with a "funny sounding" name, born under British Colonial Rule, can now be a serious candidate for the presidency of the United States .
My father was a Muslim and although I did not know him well the religion of my father and his family was always something I had an interest in. This interest became more intense when my mother married an Indonesian Muslim man and as a small child I lived in Indonesia and attended school alongside Muslim pupils. I saw their parents dutifully observing the daily prayers, the mothers covered in the Muslim hijab, the atmosphere of the school change during Ramadan, and the festiveness of the Eid celebrations.
The man my mother was married to was not particularly religious; but he would attend the mosque on occasion, and had copies of the Quran in different languages in the home, and books of the sayings and life of the Prophet Muhammad. From time to time he would quote Islamic phrases such as "no one truly believes until he wants for his brother what he wants for himself", "oppression is worse than slaughter", and "all humans are equal the only difference comes from our deeds".
Growing up in Hawaii with my mother and her grandparents Islam largely escaped my mind. My mother installed in me the values of humanism and I did not grow-up in a home were religion was taught.
It was later while I attended college at Columbia University and Harvard Law that I became reacquainted with Muslims as both schools had large Muslims student populations. Some of them were my friends and many came from countries that our nation now has hostile relations with. The background I had from my early childhood in Indonesia helped me get to know them and learn from them and to me Muslims are not to be looked upon as something strange. In my experiences up until college a Muslim was no less exotic to me than a Mormon, a Jew, or a Jehovah's Witness.
After college I settled in my adopted hometown of Chicago and lived on the South Side and worked as a community organizer. Chicago has one of the largest Muslim populations in America (estimated to be around 300,000) and Muslims make-up some of the most productive citizens in the area. I met countless numbers of Muslims in my job as an organizer and later on in my early political career. I ate in their homes, played with their kids, and looked at them as friends and peers and sought their advice.
Therefore, when the tragic terrorist attacks of 9-11 occurred I was deeply saddened with the rest of America , and I wanted justice for the victims of this horrific attack, but I did not blame all Muslims or the religion of Islam. From my experience I knew the good character of most Muslims and the value that they bring to America . Many, who did not personally know Muslims, indicted the entire religion for the bad actions of a few; my experience taught me that this was something foolish and unwise.
Later I had the chance to visit the homeland of my father and meet Muslim relatives of my including my grandmother. I found that these were people who wanted the same things out of life as people right here in America and worked hard, strive to make a better way for their children, and prayed to God to grant the success.
This is what I will bring to the office of the Presidency of the United States . I will deal with Muslims from a position of familiarity and respect and at this time in the history of our nation that is something sorely needed
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A Nightmare (An incomplete poem written in the context of the wave of terrorism)
A NIGHTMARE
How to find the missing beam
How to trace the subtle gleam
When things are not what they seem
Tears n blood flowing in a stream
In shady dark dales with no seam
Rubbing my eyes if it be a dream
But things are not what they seem
Taking a bath in this bloody brook
Is what they mean dear what they book
Doth you know what does it mean?
Trooth, prophesy or a bad dream
Ah! But things are not what they seem
An infernal lake at a stone’s throw
Sucking all the blood, I trow
Trickling tears tearing the tryst
The pool getting bigger with no rest
Laying its ebby arms on gray n green
But things are not what they seem
Amer Rizwan
How to find the missing beam
How to trace the subtle gleam
When things are not what they seem
Tears n blood flowing in a stream
In shady dark dales with no seam
Rubbing my eyes if it be a dream
But things are not what they seem
Taking a bath in this bloody brook
Is what they mean dear what they book
Doth you know what does it mean?
Trooth, prophesy or a bad dream
Ah! But things are not what they seem
An infernal lake at a stone’s throw
Sucking all the blood, I trow
Trickling tears tearing the tryst
The pool getting bigger with no rest
Laying its ebby arms on gray n green
But things are not what they seem
Amer Rizwan
Beauty Praised (An incomplete Poem)
Beauty Praised
Praise, praise beauty
It is your duty
Wherever you find it
For nature is behind it
Gaze broadday light
When even grey is wight
Take a bite of the night
Behold lovely dim light
Amer Rizwan
Praise, praise beauty
It is your duty
Wherever you find it
For nature is behind it
Gaze broadday light
When even grey is wight
Take a bite of the night
Behold lovely dim light
Amer Rizwan
Eternety (Poem)
Eternety
Listen to whispering decay
The phantom is not far away
Tis bent on spoiling poses
Trampling lilacs and roses
Is there a permanent sway
To a thing made up of clay?
Crying things will vanish
All but manners'll parish
Amer Rizwan
Listen to whispering decay
The phantom is not far away
Tis bent on spoiling poses
Trampling lilacs and roses
Is there a permanent sway
To a thing made up of clay?
Crying things will vanish
All but manners'll parish
Amer Rizwan
HYMN (Hamd) In the Praise of Almighty
HYMN (Hamd) In the Praise of Almighty
Thou ar't Cosmic Spirit, I trow
Yet thy Grace no bounds know
To thy Entity we ever bow
With knelt knee n burning brow
Pour thy showers on desert drought
N cleanse me from all the doubt
Shake shoulders of my lulled lot
Make thy Voice melody of my heart
Redeem from the dirty debris
Or shackle me to be ever free
Amer Rizwan
Thou ar't Cosmic Spirit, I trow
Yet thy Grace no bounds know
To thy Entity we ever bow
With knelt knee n burning brow
Pour thy showers on desert drought
N cleanse me from all the doubt
Shake shoulders of my lulled lot
Make thy Voice melody of my heart
Redeem from the dirty debris
Or shackle me to be ever free
Amer Rizwan
Hope in Despair (Poem)
Hope in Despair
Burthen of woe free fears
In the ocean of my tears
All but my agony will sink
If not had a life giving drink
Fearing that all the name and fame
And vision of the flickering flame
That gloom may prevail upon my sight
Breaking life threads in fright
Reborn from the bubble of breath
On the eternal ocean of death
Wait we must till it gives way
To a life where love will sway
Foresee we strolling hand in hand
In the balmy breeze on lustrous land
Where freedom n felicity are in spree
Where everything save vice is free
Burthen of woe free fears
In the ocean of my tears
All but my agony will sink
If not had a life giving drink
Fearing that all the name and fame
And vision of the flickering flame
That gloom may prevail upon my sight
Breaking life threads in fright
Reborn from the bubble of breath
On the eternal ocean of death
Wait we must till it gives way
To a life where love will sway
Foresee we strolling hand in hand
In the balmy breeze on lustrous land
Where freedom n felicity are in spree
Where everything save vice is free
Will and Skill (Poem)
Will & Skill
Ah; the one me eager to await
Hath found yet another mate
How to scrap writ of Fate
When the rebels it berate
Just after will o' the wisp?
Or there is some real crisp.
Of events life has in store
When the present is no more
Very painful is the choice
Hark, listen to divine voice
bold but behold with care
The goal is so very near
Only thy will make you win
When the skill's lost its shin
Amer Rizwan
Ah; the one me eager to await
Hath found yet another mate
How to scrap writ of Fate
When the rebels it berate
Just after will o' the wisp?
Or there is some real crisp.
Of events life has in store
When the present is no more
Very painful is the choice
Hark, listen to divine voice
bold but behold with care
The goal is so very near
Only thy will make you win
When the skill's lost its shin
Amer Rizwan
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Strategic Flaws (Book Review) "Imperial Hubris" Author: Michael Scheuer
Strategic Flaws (Book Review)
Reviewer: Amer Rizwan Khattak·
Book: Imperial Hubris
Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
Author: Michael Scheuer
Brassey’s, Inc., Washington D.C. 2004. Pages 307
It is not always easy to criticize the policies of the state when one is part and parcel of the machinery of same. Michael Scheuer (Anonymous) performs this job with utmost adroitness and devotion. He tries to kill two birds with a single stone by not only warding off the potential danger but also shaking the policy makers of their adolescence.
In starting the book, he takes to task the US intelligence agencies, which he believes, did little to avert the impending catastrophe before 9/11 though it has a number of reports suggesting that an attack may occur any time.
Those officers knew a run away train was coming at the United States, documented that fact, and then watched helplessly – or were banished from speaking out – as their senior delayed action, downplayed intelligence, ignored repeated warnings, and generally behaved as what they so manifestly are, America’s greatest generations – of moral cowards.
Again, when the attacks did occur, the US administration did not take action against the perpetrators briskly. This procrastination on the part of the US administration in attacking the Al Qaeda and Taliban gave their key leaders and the bulk of its force to take refuge in different places including in the tribal forces of Pakistan where they are already considered heroes for having helped the Afghans oust the much bigger Soviet bear and for braving the world’s sole super power i.e. The US. Once Taliban were routed with the help of the minority and futuristically less promising Northern Alliance, the US committed yet another mistake. i.e. it supported the non-representative people in Afghanistan who have not been the part and part of the forces that used to be dominant either before the US invasion of Afghanistan or before the collapse of the Communist regime in 1992. But the sordid drama does not end here. The US did not depute proper specialists for the Afghanistan. It has a number of specialists on Afghanistan who had worked closely with the Mujahidin forces during their struggle with the communist forces of Afghanistan and Soviet Union. However, working on ad hoc basis, they were cornered and non-specialists were consulted and made in charge of the Afghan affairs with the result that now the Afghan policy is in tatters.
The author argues that FBI is least equipped to cope with overseas operations. It should primarily focus on the internal law and order problems. Involving it in external operations would not only cause confusion and overlapping and leaks that prove to detrimental to American interests in the longer run. He attributes leaks in American intelligence either to the naiveté of the American intelligence officers or to their gaudiness for being more knowledgeable or even to avarice. However, all these types of leaks have adversely affected the US’ effort to root out the Al Qaeda factor.
A recurrent and very significant theme of this book is the writer’s candid analysis proving that the Americans are not hated and disliked for what they are or for their way of life but for their policies. He rebuts many a tall claims in this regard.
He goes deep into Quran and Hadith to prove that its teachings are replete with the precepts whereby every Muslims is enjoined upon to wage defensive Jihad when they are facing any injustice and when the non-Muslims are not letting them to lead their lives in accordance with Quran and Sunnah. Although there are several ways of waging Jihad but the Jihad of sword is the preferred mode. Osama bin Laden has successfully utilized these teachings plus the US’ free license to Israel at the expense of the beleaguered Palestinians. To add insult to injury, the US winking or acquiescence of the Indian, Russian, Philippian and Chinese governments’ ruthlessness vis-à-vis their Muslim minorities has provided OBL a befitting issue to exploit and to prove to the hapless Muslims that the US is spearheading a global concert that is hell bent upon exterminating the Muslims just to avenge the Christians’ defeat at the hands of Muslims in the crusades. Saladin is thereby worshiped as a great Muslim warrior hero who made the non Muslims to lick dust. So, the United States, and its policies and actions, are its only indispensable allies.
US, British and, other coalition forces are trying to govern apparently ungovernable postwar states in Afghanistan and Iraq while simultaneously fighting Islamic insurgencies in each – a state of affairs our leaders call victory. In conducting these activities, and the conventional military campaigns preceding them, US forces and policies are completing the radicalization of the Islamic world, something Same bin Ladin has been trying to do with substantial but limited success since the early 1990s.
He discusses both the viewpoints about the personal character of OBL. One the one extreme are the US and Western writers who portray him to be a callous, blood-thirsty and maniac whereas on the other are his friends and relatives who have personally interacted with him, and have thereby have first-hand knowledge about him. The author reconciles both the positions i.e. West’s mad man and Islam’s hero by acknowledging that OBL has much love for the defence for faith, the life he lives, the heroic example he sets and the similarity of that example to other heroes in the pantheon of Islamic history. Nay the author also does not disagree with the western scholars who variously describe OBL as a soldier, a CEO, a pious scholar, a warrior, one with common people, and a product of globalization.
ü The author argues that the US is playing OBL’s game.
Whether in area of defence spending, travel, foreign policy, fiscal responsibility, domestic security, or citizen safety, we have supinely allowed “our designs to be crossed” to avoid the sacrifices to fight the war bin Laden has launched.
ü Democracy cannot be introduced over night. In the West, it developed as an evolutionary process.
· The Reviewer is pursuing his Ph-D Degree in the Department of International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad.
Reviewer: Amer Rizwan Khattak·
Book: Imperial Hubris
Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
Author: Michael Scheuer
Brassey’s, Inc., Washington D.C. 2004. Pages 307
It is not always easy to criticize the policies of the state when one is part and parcel of the machinery of same. Michael Scheuer (Anonymous) performs this job with utmost adroitness and devotion. He tries to kill two birds with a single stone by not only warding off the potential danger but also shaking the policy makers of their adolescence.
In starting the book, he takes to task the US intelligence agencies, which he believes, did little to avert the impending catastrophe before 9/11 though it has a number of reports suggesting that an attack may occur any time.
Those officers knew a run away train was coming at the United States, documented that fact, and then watched helplessly – or were banished from speaking out – as their senior delayed action, downplayed intelligence, ignored repeated warnings, and generally behaved as what they so manifestly are, America’s greatest generations – of moral cowards.
Again, when the attacks did occur, the US administration did not take action against the perpetrators briskly. This procrastination on the part of the US administration in attacking the Al Qaeda and Taliban gave their key leaders and the bulk of its force to take refuge in different places including in the tribal forces of Pakistan where they are already considered heroes for having helped the Afghans oust the much bigger Soviet bear and for braving the world’s sole super power i.e. The US. Once Taliban were routed with the help of the minority and futuristically less promising Northern Alliance, the US committed yet another mistake. i.e. it supported the non-representative people in Afghanistan who have not been the part and part of the forces that used to be dominant either before the US invasion of Afghanistan or before the collapse of the Communist regime in 1992. But the sordid drama does not end here. The US did not depute proper specialists for the Afghanistan. It has a number of specialists on Afghanistan who had worked closely with the Mujahidin forces during their struggle with the communist forces of Afghanistan and Soviet Union. However, working on ad hoc basis, they were cornered and non-specialists were consulted and made in charge of the Afghan affairs with the result that now the Afghan policy is in tatters.
The author argues that FBI is least equipped to cope with overseas operations. It should primarily focus on the internal law and order problems. Involving it in external operations would not only cause confusion and overlapping and leaks that prove to detrimental to American interests in the longer run. He attributes leaks in American intelligence either to the naiveté of the American intelligence officers or to their gaudiness for being more knowledgeable or even to avarice. However, all these types of leaks have adversely affected the US’ effort to root out the Al Qaeda factor.
A recurrent and very significant theme of this book is the writer’s candid analysis proving that the Americans are not hated and disliked for what they are or for their way of life but for their policies. He rebuts many a tall claims in this regard.
He goes deep into Quran and Hadith to prove that its teachings are replete with the precepts whereby every Muslims is enjoined upon to wage defensive Jihad when they are facing any injustice and when the non-Muslims are not letting them to lead their lives in accordance with Quran and Sunnah. Although there are several ways of waging Jihad but the Jihad of sword is the preferred mode. Osama bin Laden has successfully utilized these teachings plus the US’ free license to Israel at the expense of the beleaguered Palestinians. To add insult to injury, the US winking or acquiescence of the Indian, Russian, Philippian and Chinese governments’ ruthlessness vis-à-vis their Muslim minorities has provided OBL a befitting issue to exploit and to prove to the hapless Muslims that the US is spearheading a global concert that is hell bent upon exterminating the Muslims just to avenge the Christians’ defeat at the hands of Muslims in the crusades. Saladin is thereby worshiped as a great Muslim warrior hero who made the non Muslims to lick dust. So, the United States, and its policies and actions, are its only indispensable allies.
US, British and, other coalition forces are trying to govern apparently ungovernable postwar states in Afghanistan and Iraq while simultaneously fighting Islamic insurgencies in each – a state of affairs our leaders call victory. In conducting these activities, and the conventional military campaigns preceding them, US forces and policies are completing the radicalization of the Islamic world, something Same bin Ladin has been trying to do with substantial but limited success since the early 1990s.
He discusses both the viewpoints about the personal character of OBL. One the one extreme are the US and Western writers who portray him to be a callous, blood-thirsty and maniac whereas on the other are his friends and relatives who have personally interacted with him, and have thereby have first-hand knowledge about him. The author reconciles both the positions i.e. West’s mad man and Islam’s hero by acknowledging that OBL has much love for the defence for faith, the life he lives, the heroic example he sets and the similarity of that example to other heroes in the pantheon of Islamic history. Nay the author also does not disagree with the western scholars who variously describe OBL as a soldier, a CEO, a pious scholar, a warrior, one with common people, and a product of globalization.
ü The author argues that the US is playing OBL’s game.
Whether in area of defence spending, travel, foreign policy, fiscal responsibility, domestic security, or citizen safety, we have supinely allowed “our designs to be crossed” to avoid the sacrifices to fight the war bin Laden has launched.
ü Democracy cannot be introduced over night. In the West, it developed as an evolutionary process.
· The Reviewer is pursuing his Ph-D Degree in the Department of International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
DICTATORSHIP LEADS TO ANARCHY
Dictatorship is universally considered as an undesirable political regime.[1] This goes by many other names: monarchy, totalitarianism, authoritarianism, imperialism, etc. Dictatorship occurs when one person is the highest lawmaker in the group, whose power is unchecked by any other person or institution. History has recorded the many evils of this system.
According to Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are always bad men,"[2] The reason is because individuals are primarily self-interested, and dictators have the power to reward their self-interest at the expense of the group. Such abuse can become extreme. Another English politician - William Pitt the Younger, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, had also said something similar, in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770: "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it". As referred to earlier, the extremeness of corruption would invariably lead to frustration and eventually anarchy and chaos.[3] While focusing on Pakistan, we can infer from the repetitive patterns of military dictatorships in Pakistan that all the military dictators in Pakistan have been megalomaniac in nature. All of them have considered their position at the centre of the power simply indispensable for the security of Pakistan. Therefore they have simply erased the undesirable portions of the constitution and inserted the clauses of their own choosing quite blatantly. Mostly they have capitalized on the people disenchantment with the political leadership that has preceded them[4]. Epitomizing the Louis XIV who claimed himself to be the Monarchy and the Constitution. The situation has culminated in the Musharraf period.
A single person may be an effective leader when the organization is small enough for the leader to master all its details. But the larger the group, the more details there are to know and run, and the less one person can handle it all. Those who try to control every aspect of a large organization fail. Dictators therefore must delegate a share of their authority to underlings, but this raises other serious problems. Underlings are also self-interested, and seek to protect their own welfare over the group’s. This leads to popular disenchantment and social divide. As there is no peaceful way of getting rid of these corrupt elements so resorting to violence remains the only viable option to be taken up by the masses. In the ensuing scenario, many dangerous forces are unleashed, including anarchy as well. It so happens in most of the military regimes of Pakistan that the a handful of corrupt politicians serve the purpose of the dictatorship readily, and in the process not only cushioned him but also at times provided him with an extra lease of life. During Musharraf’s regime, most of his aides and ministers were bank-defaulters and the plunderers of the national exchequer nay they continued to make hay while the sun shone on them under the very nose of the so-called National Accountability Bureau (NAB). However, in each case the manifest chaos and popular restlessness is the outcome of this unholy alliance between the dictatorship and the pseudo-politicians. The obtaining gloomy scenario in Pakistan points to this very fact.[5]
Again there is information deficit in dictatorships. Dictators receive little accurate information from below. This is critical because individual dictators cannot match the collective wisdom of the group. Groups bring together a much broader array of information, education, viewpoints, specialized skills, experiences and creative suggestions, all of which get aired during democratic debate. There are many reasons why this benefit is significantly reduced under dictatorships.
Although the number of dictatorships has significantly decreased in the last two decades and across continents, this regime has been persistent and widespread throughout history, still exists in large parts of the world today and constantly threatens fragile democracies.[6] Dictatorship can be defined as term detonating any regime violating freedom and other basic human rights. So according to this criterion broadly speaking there are two forms of government – dictatorship and democracy – and one possible situation characterized by the absence of government – Anarchy. Although this dichotomy is generally accepted yet analysts generally refer to another situation as well i.e. Aristocracy[7] .
Dictators usually find it irresistible to impose their own "Absolute Truth" on the masses, rather than collect truth from them. Almost always, dictators shut down free speech and free press to ensure their own Absolute Truth goes unrivaled. Examples of this conceit include Hitler’s "Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment," Lenin’s "party line" and the Catholic Church’s "orthodox faith." People with different opinions are usually branded as "heretics" and persecuted by such "guardians of truth" as the Gestapo, the KGB or the Inquisition.
This only reinforces the first problem i.e. telling dictators what they want to hear, not the unpleasant truth. The underlings cannot afford to annoy the one who is at the helm of affairs thereby keeping him in dark and the trust deficit between the rulers and the ruled further get widened.[8]
The problem of learning accurate information in a dictatorship is impossible to understate. Hitler, Stalin, and countless other dictators eventually came to live in fantasy worlds, which were finally shattered only by some reality-based event like a military invasion or revolution. The same is the case with the Shah of Iran who was overthrown by Khomenised revolution. Here Khomeini was a single rallying point and the situation could not lead to anarchy. But in Pakistan quite a number of dictatorial measures under Musharraf and opening up of so many fronts that culminated in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto could have easily led to Anarchy if the elections would have been further delayed. One common aspect of nearly all dictatorships is that their leaders come to believe the "reports" of their own propaganda machines, namely, that the masses are happy, even if in reality they are desperate. Stalin, for example, believed his "Socialist Realism" films that depicted happy peasants singing in the fields, even though actual peasants were resorting to cannibalism trying to survive famine. Again President Musharraf would read the same mantra everywhere i.e. He is the most popular leader of the country. Again the growing lawlessness emanated from the price-hike and the people’s distrust of him and the army as an institution have been deliberately shunned to him. Pakistanis are virtually facing the virtual famine. Portraying the things quite gloomily, some of the Pakistani scholars wonder as to whether or not Pakistan is poised to become a new Kampuchea.[9] Ongoing conflicts in Swat and Tribal Areas belie Musharraf’s tall claims that Al Qaeda is on the run in Pakistan. The pessimists claim that in the face of the ongoing domestic turmoil, there is every likelihood that the Central Government will probably be confined only to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi.[10] Again in Pakistan, under military regimes the trickle-down effect of the so-called prosperity and abundance is not visible even in microscope.. In such a situation the class conflict in the Marxian sense cannot be really ruled out. In Pakistani sense in particular, this problem is compounded by the dominance of the army in the national affairs[11].
Dictatorships waste enormous resources on security. Dictators often require a large army, internal police force and security apparatus to thwart rivals, stifle criticism and stay in power. In a democracy, free rivalry and criticism actually help to drive incompetent or corrupt leaders out of office. Democracies do have other costs, like periodic campaign advertising and elections, but these are usually far less than a permanent security force policing the entire population. In Pakistan we incur so many resources on the VIP Security.[12]
Absolute power would corrupt the possessor of the power.
The security state under dictatorship ignores the welfare needs of the general people.
It is difficult to get accurate information in dictatorships.
The dictator’s discomfiture with truth leads to his unpopularity and downfall.
The inability of the people to bring about peaceful change in dictatorial regimes made them to resort to violent means.
The normative judgment on political regimes has evolved much through history. Before the French Revolution, monarchy was considered as the best form of government in most of the classics of political thought. From the nineteenth century on, democracy has gained the status of the best political regime (Bobbio 1989).
This arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887
Thabit A. J. Abdullah, Dictatorship, Imperialism and Chaos, Zed Books, 2006.
Karamatullah K. Ghauri, “A Tale of Two Power Addicts”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008.
Pakistan- Politics, Global Security, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/politics.htm (Accessed on April 20 2008)
Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin gradually moved away from democracy (Pipes 2004). Pakistan returned to dictatorship in 1999 after 12 years of democracy while its neighbour, India, remains mainly democratic.
The term Aristocracy has been largely incorporated into the wider term Dictatorship after the Bobshevik and the fascist regimes of 1930s . (Bobbio 1989).
Zafar Ali Sheikh and Paul Wiseman, Distrust and Fear Grip Pakistan, USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-13-pakistan_N.htm (Accessed on May 10, 2008)
M. Abul Fazl, “Will Pakistan become another Kampochea?”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008
Ahmad Faruqui, “The Long Road Ahead”, Dawn Islamabad. February 11, 2008.
ibid
Energy Conservation the only option, Dawn Islamabad. February 10, 2008
[1] The normative judgment on political regimes has evolved much through history. Before the French Revolution, monarchy was considered as the best form of government in most of the classics of political thought. From the nineteenth century on, democracy has gained the status of the best political regime (Bobbio 1989).
[2] This arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:
[3] Thabit A. J. Abdullah, Dictatorship, Imperialism and Chaos, Zed Books, 2006.
[4] Karamatullah K. Ghauri, “A Tale of Two Power Addicts”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008.
[5] Pakistan- Politics, Global Security, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/politics.htm (Accessed on April 20 2008)
[6] Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin gradually moved away from democracy (Pipes 2004). Pakistan returned to dictatorship in 1999 after 12 years of democracy while its neighbour, India, remains mainly democratic.
[7] The term Aristocracy has been largely incorporated into the wider term Dictatorship after the Bobshevik and the fascist regimes of 1930s . (Bobbio 1989).
[8] Zafar Ali Sheikh and Paul Wiseman, Distrust and Fear Grip Pakistan, USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-13-pakistan_N.htm (Accessed on May 10, 2008)
[9] M. Abul Fazl, “Will Pakistan become another Kampochea?”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008
[10] Ahmad Faruqui, “The Long Road Ahead”, Dawn Islamabad. February 11, 2008.
[11] ibid
[12] Energy Conservation the only option, Dawn Islamabad. February 10, 2008
According to Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are always bad men,"[2] The reason is because individuals are primarily self-interested, and dictators have the power to reward their self-interest at the expense of the group. Such abuse can become extreme. Another English politician - William Pitt the Younger, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, had also said something similar, in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770: "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it". As referred to earlier, the extremeness of corruption would invariably lead to frustration and eventually anarchy and chaos.[3] While focusing on Pakistan, we can infer from the repetitive patterns of military dictatorships in Pakistan that all the military dictators in Pakistan have been megalomaniac in nature. All of them have considered their position at the centre of the power simply indispensable for the security of Pakistan. Therefore they have simply erased the undesirable portions of the constitution and inserted the clauses of their own choosing quite blatantly. Mostly they have capitalized on the people disenchantment with the political leadership that has preceded them[4]. Epitomizing the Louis XIV who claimed himself to be the Monarchy and the Constitution. The situation has culminated in the Musharraf period.
A single person may be an effective leader when the organization is small enough for the leader to master all its details. But the larger the group, the more details there are to know and run, and the less one person can handle it all. Those who try to control every aspect of a large organization fail. Dictators therefore must delegate a share of their authority to underlings, but this raises other serious problems. Underlings are also self-interested, and seek to protect their own welfare over the group’s. This leads to popular disenchantment and social divide. As there is no peaceful way of getting rid of these corrupt elements so resorting to violence remains the only viable option to be taken up by the masses. In the ensuing scenario, many dangerous forces are unleashed, including anarchy as well. It so happens in most of the military regimes of Pakistan that the a handful of corrupt politicians serve the purpose of the dictatorship readily, and in the process not only cushioned him but also at times provided him with an extra lease of life. During Musharraf’s regime, most of his aides and ministers were bank-defaulters and the plunderers of the national exchequer nay they continued to make hay while the sun shone on them under the very nose of the so-called National Accountability Bureau (NAB). However, in each case the manifest chaos and popular restlessness is the outcome of this unholy alliance between the dictatorship and the pseudo-politicians. The obtaining gloomy scenario in Pakistan points to this very fact.[5]
Again there is information deficit in dictatorships. Dictators receive little accurate information from below. This is critical because individual dictators cannot match the collective wisdom of the group. Groups bring together a much broader array of information, education, viewpoints, specialized skills, experiences and creative suggestions, all of which get aired during democratic debate. There are many reasons why this benefit is significantly reduced under dictatorships.
Although the number of dictatorships has significantly decreased in the last two decades and across continents, this regime has been persistent and widespread throughout history, still exists in large parts of the world today and constantly threatens fragile democracies.[6] Dictatorship can be defined as term detonating any regime violating freedom and other basic human rights. So according to this criterion broadly speaking there are two forms of government – dictatorship and democracy – and one possible situation characterized by the absence of government – Anarchy. Although this dichotomy is generally accepted yet analysts generally refer to another situation as well i.e. Aristocracy[7] .
Dictators usually find it irresistible to impose their own "Absolute Truth" on the masses, rather than collect truth from them. Almost always, dictators shut down free speech and free press to ensure their own Absolute Truth goes unrivaled. Examples of this conceit include Hitler’s "Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment," Lenin’s "party line" and the Catholic Church’s "orthodox faith." People with different opinions are usually branded as "heretics" and persecuted by such "guardians of truth" as the Gestapo, the KGB or the Inquisition.
This only reinforces the first problem i.e. telling dictators what they want to hear, not the unpleasant truth. The underlings cannot afford to annoy the one who is at the helm of affairs thereby keeping him in dark and the trust deficit between the rulers and the ruled further get widened.[8]
The problem of learning accurate information in a dictatorship is impossible to understate. Hitler, Stalin, and countless other dictators eventually came to live in fantasy worlds, which were finally shattered only by some reality-based event like a military invasion or revolution. The same is the case with the Shah of Iran who was overthrown by Khomenised revolution. Here Khomeini was a single rallying point and the situation could not lead to anarchy. But in Pakistan quite a number of dictatorial measures under Musharraf and opening up of so many fronts that culminated in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto could have easily led to Anarchy if the elections would have been further delayed. One common aspect of nearly all dictatorships is that their leaders come to believe the "reports" of their own propaganda machines, namely, that the masses are happy, even if in reality they are desperate. Stalin, for example, believed his "Socialist Realism" films that depicted happy peasants singing in the fields, even though actual peasants were resorting to cannibalism trying to survive famine. Again President Musharraf would read the same mantra everywhere i.e. He is the most popular leader of the country. Again the growing lawlessness emanated from the price-hike and the people’s distrust of him and the army as an institution have been deliberately shunned to him. Pakistanis are virtually facing the virtual famine. Portraying the things quite gloomily, some of the Pakistani scholars wonder as to whether or not Pakistan is poised to become a new Kampuchea.[9] Ongoing conflicts in Swat and Tribal Areas belie Musharraf’s tall claims that Al Qaeda is on the run in Pakistan. The pessimists claim that in the face of the ongoing domestic turmoil, there is every likelihood that the Central Government will probably be confined only to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi.[10] Again in Pakistan, under military regimes the trickle-down effect of the so-called prosperity and abundance is not visible even in microscope.. In such a situation the class conflict in the Marxian sense cannot be really ruled out. In Pakistani sense in particular, this problem is compounded by the dominance of the army in the national affairs[11].
Dictatorships waste enormous resources on security. Dictators often require a large army, internal police force and security apparatus to thwart rivals, stifle criticism and stay in power. In a democracy, free rivalry and criticism actually help to drive incompetent or corrupt leaders out of office. Democracies do have other costs, like periodic campaign advertising and elections, but these are usually far less than a permanent security force policing the entire population. In Pakistan we incur so many resources on the VIP Security.[12]
Absolute power would corrupt the possessor of the power.
The security state under dictatorship ignores the welfare needs of the general people.
It is difficult to get accurate information in dictatorships.
The dictator’s discomfiture with truth leads to his unpopularity and downfall.
The inability of the people to bring about peaceful change in dictatorial regimes made them to resort to violent means.
The normative judgment on political regimes has evolved much through history. Before the French Revolution, monarchy was considered as the best form of government in most of the classics of political thought. From the nineteenth century on, democracy has gained the status of the best political regime (Bobbio 1989).
This arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887
Thabit A. J. Abdullah, Dictatorship, Imperialism and Chaos, Zed Books, 2006.
Karamatullah K. Ghauri, “A Tale of Two Power Addicts”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008.
Pakistan- Politics, Global Security, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/politics.htm (Accessed on April 20 2008)
Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin gradually moved away from democracy (Pipes 2004). Pakistan returned to dictatorship in 1999 after 12 years of democracy while its neighbour, India, remains mainly democratic.
The term Aristocracy has been largely incorporated into the wider term Dictatorship after the Bobshevik and the fascist regimes of 1930s . (Bobbio 1989).
Zafar Ali Sheikh and Paul Wiseman, Distrust and Fear Grip Pakistan, USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-13-pakistan_N.htm (Accessed on May 10, 2008)
M. Abul Fazl, “Will Pakistan become another Kampochea?”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008
Ahmad Faruqui, “The Long Road Ahead”, Dawn Islamabad. February 11, 2008.
ibid
Energy Conservation the only option, Dawn Islamabad. February 10, 2008
[1] The normative judgment on political regimes has evolved much through history. Before the French Revolution, monarchy was considered as the best form of government in most of the classics of political thought. From the nineteenth century on, democracy has gained the status of the best political regime (Bobbio 1989).
[2] This arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:
[3] Thabit A. J. Abdullah, Dictatorship, Imperialism and Chaos, Zed Books, 2006.
[4] Karamatullah K. Ghauri, “A Tale of Two Power Addicts”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008.
[5] Pakistan- Politics, Global Security, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/politics.htm (Accessed on April 20 2008)
[6] Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin gradually moved away from democracy (Pipes 2004). Pakistan returned to dictatorship in 1999 after 12 years of democracy while its neighbour, India, remains mainly democratic.
[7] The term Aristocracy has been largely incorporated into the wider term Dictatorship after the Bobshevik and the fascist regimes of 1930s . (Bobbio 1989).
[8] Zafar Ali Sheikh and Paul Wiseman, Distrust and Fear Grip Pakistan, USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-11-13-pakistan_N.htm (Accessed on May 10, 2008)
[9] M. Abul Fazl, “Will Pakistan become another Kampochea?”, Dawn Islamabad. April 12, 2008
[10] Ahmad Faruqui, “The Long Road Ahead”, Dawn Islamabad. February 11, 2008.
[11] ibid
[12] Energy Conservation the only option, Dawn Islamabad. February 10, 2008
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