The sentencing of a 75-year-old widow to 40 lashes and four months in prison for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia’s ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi, was convicted and sentenced last week for meeting with men who were not her immediate relatives. The two men, including one who was Sawadi’s late husband’s nephew, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes.

The woman’s lawyer, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, told The Associated Press on Monday that he plans to appeal the verdict, which also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her prison term. He declined to provide more details and said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media.

Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Islam prohibits men and women who are not immediate relatives from mingling and women from driving. The playing of music, dancing and many movies also are a concern for hard-liners who believe they violate religious and moral values.

A special police unit called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice enforces these laws, patrolling public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, sexes don’t mix, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque to worship.

But criticism of the religious police and judiciary has been growing in Saudi, where many say they exploit their broad mandate to interfere in people’s lives.

Last month, the Saudi king dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing of TV network owners that broadcast “immoral content“—as part of a shake-up signaling an effort to weaken the kingdom’s hard-line Sunni Muslim establishment.

In Sawadi’s case, the elderly woman met the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported.

The men—identified by Al-Watan as the nephew, Fahd al-Anzi, and his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein—went to Sawadi’s home in the city of al-Chamil, located north of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. After delivering the bread, the two men were arrested by a one of the religious police, Al-Watan reported.

The court said it based its March 3 ruling on “citizen information” and testimony from al-Anzi’s father, who accused Sawadi of corruption.

“Because she said she doesn’t have a husband and because she is not a Saudi, conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed,” the court verdict read.

Sawadi had told the court that she considered al-Anzi is her son, because she breast-fed him when he was a baby. But the court denied her claim, saying she didn’t provide evidence. In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers.

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By Sonja Karkar

After some consultation between the convoy leaders and Libyan officials, it was decided to by-pass the towns of Benghazi and Bayda in Libya to cut the time it would take to get to Gaza. This meant a desert crossing of some 400km – enduring not what many would think to be hot and stifling conditions, but rather the bitter cold of winter winds unbroken by vast expanses of emptiness. Perhaps few thought of what would await them on this journey when they first set out, but certainly despite the hardships no one is complaining. What the Palestinians in Gaza are suffering is so much more and that is uppermost in everyone’s minds.

Nevertheless, poor and oftentimes non-existent phone signals, no landmarks, breakdowns, sandstorms and security restrictions are just some of the hiccups that have made the epic journey a writer’s dream story – after all, there are some 300 people sharing in the experience and each with their own story to tell. Under normal circumstances, it would be splashed in large headlines with a blow-by-blow account of various travelers’ tales. Not so on this voyage. The media is strangely silent, seemingly uninterested even in the historic opening of the border between Morocco and Algeria that has been closed since 1994.

The first time The Guardian decided to cover the convoy’s journey was to paint a negative picture of the successful progress made through eight different countries by reporting gossip picked up from the blogosphere. (1)
Undeterred, George Galloway’s office responded to the malicious rumours of graft and corruption by reminding people that the intrepid volunteers who have come thus far “deserve celebration, not denigration by The Guardian.”

Everyone knew why they were going. The 100 aid-filled trucks would never be enough to make a difference to a starving population of 1.5 million people (although the few that will benefit is surely better than nothing). No, it was not just about aid, but about sending a message to the world that there are people who care about what happens to the people of Gaza. It was about some 300 volunteers who have been prepared to sacrifice time and the comforts of home for fellow human beings they do not know, hoping that their trek would resonate with the world’s conscience and make a difference to how governments respond to the plight of the Palestinians.

Well all that may have happened if the media was on side, but they are clearly not. And that is not surprising when the media mogul Rupert Murdoch blithely announced yesterday that Israel should be welcomed into the NATO alliance saying “in the end, the Israeli people are fighting the same enemy we are: cold-blooded killers who reject peace, who reject freedom, and who rule by the suicide vest, the car bomb, and the human shield.” That is obviously how Mr. Murdoch sees the 1.5 million Palestinians who have been left to rot after Israel’s 22-day merciless bombardment of Gaza’s impossibly cramped cities, neighbourhoods and farming lands. No compassion there for the women and children, the sick and the aged, the doctors, teachers, health workers and hundreds of thousands of ordinary people trying to make sense of Israel’s illegal collective punishment.

I wonder how long Mr. Murdoch would have survived under the blistering phosphorous rain exploding from Israel’s war planes, or how he would have liked Israel’s conventional bombs dropped down on him with no safe place to which he could run, or how long he would last on Israel’s enforced “diet” on the Gaza population before the griping hunger pangs begin to drive him crazy, or how he would cope without any pills when illness begins to prey on his ageing body and mind because Israel refuses to allow medicines in or patients out. But of course, Israel and Mr. Murdoch already have a cozy alliance so he will never have to suffer what Israel is making the Palestinians endure. And the world is not being told because Mr. Murdoch’s media empire is colluding in Israel’s crimes by ignoring the human disaster in Gaza that lurches from doom to death without a word of outrage or calling Israel to account. Well may Mr. Murdoch sit comfortable in the twilight of
his life propped up by his trainer, herbalist and beautician, but their miracles alas for him are finite, and he too will wither and pass the way of all of us when his time comes. The Palestinians though will endure from generation to generation, no matter how many bombs are dropped on them or how silent the world remains. They will outlive Mr. Murdoch and Israel’s never-ending parade of corrupt politicians to whom the rest of us are expected to bow and scrape as if we owe them for our very existence.

When will we wake up? When will we say “enough?” When will we realize that we are being deluded in the world’s biggest charade of lies and cover ups to preserve an internally decaying Israel? Is the ethnic cleansing of 1.5 million people not enough for breaking news headlines, news alerts, and daily updates? Obviously not yet. Instead, we are sacrificing the Palestinians to rest easy in our beds without the hassle of defending ourselves against the usual diatribes unleashed whenever Israel is criticised? Be assured that these diatribes will not stop with the demise of Palestine. The more we close our eyes and turn our backs, the more we will find ourselves unable to raise a whimper about the bigger targets Israel has in its sight and more people will suffer and die on the flimsy pretext of Israel’s security.

Back to the aid convoy – it’s in Egypt now and the question is will Egypt let them into Gaza? They probably will and then what? If they’re lucky the aid will be distributed, the now battered vehicles left for a limited life in Gaza and some 300 people will know what they always knew – that the Palestinians are being cruelly subjected to a life of universal contempt and utter humiliation in the open-air prison Israel has created with the world’s help. They will return home to families and communities and tell them their stories, but no thanks to the media so adept at shaping public opinion.

Really, it is up to everyone of us who knows what is happening to spread the word. Tell your family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues, and acquaintances about the amazing 5000km trek from London to Gaza. Tell your local communities, church groups, schools, volunteer organisations, talk-back radio. Write and talk, ask for help, never be afraid to speak up about human rights. One day your own rights may be in jeopardy.

What this convoy has achieved is worth celebrating, just as the boats to Gaza deserve our admiration. There are indeed people who are willing to act on what they believe, and if we cannot do it, let us at least give them resounding support and encouragement for trying to make a difference against the might of institutionalised power. The ripple effect has a way of creating a tsunami and that is what Israel fears most. Do not believe for a moment that things cannot change for the Palestinians: they said the same thing about the African slaves in America, apartheid in South Africa, child labour in the factories in England and the coal mines in Wales, the emancipation of women, indentured servitude in the colonies, the 8-hour day, the oppression that stirred resistance and revolutions, and the list goes on. None of these things would have changed or come about if people had remained silent and inactive. The Palestinians need our help because they are in prison. They are not the “cold-blooded killers” that Mr Murdoch propagates through his media outlets, just people like you and me, yet all the more extraordinary because they will not be intimidated into oblivion. And, it would serve us well to remember that none of us would be either, if faced with same stark reality.

(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/04/galloway-viva-palestina-egyptian-government

AND TO OUR POLITICIANS IN AUSTRALIA WHO HAVE REFUSED TO REVOKE THE PROSCRIBED LISTING OF THE THE UK-REGISTERED CHARITY “INTERPAL” UNDER ANTI-TERROR LAWS – (THE CHARITY BEING USED BY VIVA PALESTINA) the UK Charity Commission has cleared Interpal for the third time:

* Interpal is cleared of any bias in its work and aid delivery

* Interpal is cleared of the accusation of carrying out non-charitable work

* Interpal’s trustees are cleared of any links to terrorist organisations or activities

* Interpal’s charitable partners are free from any allegations made against them by the BBC Panorama programme and the Israeli Government.

Furthermore,

* The Charity Commission rejects all allegations made and evidence brought against Interpal by the BBC Panorama programme and The Israeli Government

* The American administration failed for the second time to provide the Charity Commission with any credible evidence against Interpal

* Interpal is free to continue its charitable work on behalf of needy Palestinians

PLEASE NOTE THAT BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED NOT TO USE INTERPAL FOR OUR DONATIONS TO GAZA, WE ARE LOOKING TO PAY OUR DONATIONS DIRECT TO A NEEDY HOSPITAL IN GAZA THROUGH ITS BANK ACCOUNT, OR FAILING THAT, THROUGH MUSLIM AID AUSTRALIA.

(Submitted by Ingrid B. Mork)

from Brenda Murad
Democracy Now!
brenda@democracynow.org
212 431-9090×836

Dear Friends,

It is my pleasure to let you know that Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald are the first recipients of the Park Center for Independent Media’s Izzy Award.

We’re honored to share this acknowledgement of Democracy Now!’s work with you — and extend our deepest thanks for being such an important [part] of our family.

Warmest regards,

Brenda

Glenn Greenwald And Amy Goodman Share Inaugural Izzy Award For Independent Media

ITHACA, NY — The Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College has announced that its first annual Izzy Award for special achievement in independent media will be shared this year by two pillars of independent journalism: blogger Glenn Greenwald and “Democracy Now!” host/executive producer Amy Goodman.

The award ceremony — featuring Goodman and Greenwald — will take place at Ithaca’s State Theatre on Tuesday, March 31. More details on the event, which is free and open to the public, will be announced at a later date.

The Izzy Award is named after the legendary dissident journalist Isidor Feinstein “Izzy” Stone, who launched his muckraking newsletter “I.F. Stone’s Weekly” in 1953 during the height of the McCarthy witch hunts. Stone, who died in 1989, exposed government deceit and corruption while championing civil liberties, racial justice and international diplomacy.

Citing their “pathbreaking journalistic courage and persistence in confronting conventional wisdom, official deception and controversial issues,” the judges chose the two winners because “the intrepid spirit of Izzy Stone is alive and thriving in the tireless daily efforts of Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald.”

Glenn Greenwald is a former constitutional lawyer who started blogging in 2005, acting as his own editor/publisher in the I.F. Stone tradition. In 2007 he moved his popular blog to Salon.com, retaining full editorial freedom. Week after week, in meticulously documented and detailed blog posts, he skewers hypocrisy, deception and revisionism on the part of the powers that be in government and the media. His 2008 reporting on a false claim about 9/11 by then-U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey led to a retraction. With devastatingly crisp arguments, Greenwald has inveighed against torture and defended constitutional rights for all, whether they be “enemy combatants” or American protesters. He has toughly criticized both Republicans and Democrats, and his blogging frequently sparks debate in major media and on Capitol Hill.

Over the past 12 years, Amy Goodman has built “Democracy Now!” into the largest public media collaboration — it can be found on television, radio and the Internet — in the country. Independent of any party or sponsor in the I.F. Stone tradition, “Democracy Now!” offers a daily cutting-edge broadcast featuring issues, experts and debates rarely heard in corporate media, including the voices of both policymakers and those affected by policy. Through timely interviews with heads of state, opposition leaders, artists and organizers, Goodman in 2008 maintained an ongoing, tenacious focus on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. violations of the Geneva conventions, racial justice issues such as the still-displaced poor of New Orleans, and political repression overseas. “Democracy Now!” has become a daily stop for journalists, scholars, officials and activists seeking not just to get behind the news, but to stay ahead of the news.

Based in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, the Park Center for Independent Media (http://www.ithaca.edu/indy) was launched in 2008 as a national center for the study of media outlets that create and distribute content outside traditional corporate systems and news organizations.
Judges of the inaugural Izzy Award were PCIM director Jeff Cohen; University of Illinois communications professor and author Robert W. McChesney; and Linda Jue, director and executive editor of the San Francisco-based G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism.
“The judges were impressed by the daunting number of outstanding candidates for this new award,” said Cohen. “It reflects the growing clout and diversity of independent media.”

For more information, visit http://www.ithaca.edu/indy/izzy or contact Jeff Cohen at Jcohen@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-1330

Cricket must do all it can to preserve the most beguiling and unpredictable of nations

Mike Atherton, Chief Cricket Correspondent

It is possible to love the Pakistan cricket team, just as it is possible to hate them. They can play sublimely, they can play disastrously; they play within the laws, and break them at will; they have produced some of the game’s greatest talents, and some of its biggest villains.

Watching Pakistan play cricket is a bit like watching Paul Gascoigne play football. There is always magic, but it is a magic fraught with danger. They force you to the edge of your seat, nails bitten to the quick, never quite sure what crazy thing is going to happen next.

In the late 1990s, if you wanted boring consistency, then watching Australia was the thing: always pressing home the advantage, always winning, usually with a preaching tone to boot. If you wanted textbook cricket, then England was the place to be: left elbow high, and all that, and steady line and length. If you wanted tactical sterility, then you should have gone to South Africa: seam bowlers banging away outside off stump, to rigid field settings. Even West Indies were predictable in their awfulness.

Pakistan, meanwhile, were totally and utterly unpredictable; beguiling, bewitching and, at times, bloody dreadful. They would win gloriously then lose shambolically, each defeat producing convulsions and factions within the camp, the captain blaming the coach and vice versa, before some government minister stepped in and sacked the lot. In a bizarre period between 1992 and 1995 there were nine different captains of the team, the job little more than a prestigious game of pass the parcel.

A list of Pakistan captains in the 1990s is both a gallery of rogues and a roll call of some of the great players of the period: Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Salim Malik, Saeed Anwar. Imran was the father figure by the early part of the decade, the roughest of diamonds who became the most polished of fast bowlers. He was the inspirational figure who urged his team to fight like cornered tigers in the 1992 World Cup when they were on the brink of elimination and who, ultimately, lifted the trophy on a triumphant night in Melbourne. That evening Pakistan showed the rest of the world what was possible if raw, uninhibited talent was given its head.

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By Zofeen Ebrahim*

As Indus waters are diverted upstream, steady ingress of sea water into the delta has upset its delicate ecology.

KHARO CHAAN, Sindh, Feb 28 (IPS) – Sitting on a rickety bench outside the dispensary of Dr. Abdul Jalil at Deh Bublo, Issa Mallah, a centenarian, watches the world go by. He says he comes to this ‘city’ everyday to buy his groceries.

Jalil is not a doctor but a dispenser. And Deh Bublo does not even remotely fit the definition of a city – though it once was a flourishing town.

To Mallah and the other 5,000 or so inhabitants of the scattered 25-30 villages on this 25 sq km island of Kharo Chhan (salt water swamps in the Sindhi language), Deh Bublo – which has no electricity and depends on a muddy pond for drinking water – is the nearest thing to a city. It does boast of a primary school, a mosque and Jalil’s clinic.

The Indus delta, on which Kharo Chhan stands, once occupied an area of about 600,000 hectares. It consisted of creeks, forests and mudflats. The active delta, say experts, is now just 10 percent of the original area.

For the last 25 years, Jalil, who has studied till grade 12, has been practicing medicine at the government-run clinic. But, his own family has moved to Karachi for a ‘’better, cleaner’’ lifestyle.

Jalil’s practice is good thanks to the highly contaminated water the villagers buy from the vendors who tank up from the muddy swamp. ‘’I tell them to boil the water, but fuel is expensive and these people cannot afford it,’’ he says. ‘’Most of the children (some 800 are under-five) suffer from diarrhoea, cough and fever,’’ Jalil says.

Kharo Chhan, stands at a distance of 80 km from Gharo town on the National Highway, town, and 150 km from the port city of Karachi. It is located in the Mutni Creek of Thatta district.

A ferryboat trip costing Rs 25 (31 US cents) is the only way to get to the island. The ride lasts about 15 minutes but the boat will not leave the rickety jetty until it is full and that may take well over an hour. Passengers may have for company chickens, goats, buffaloes, bags of grocery and the odd bicycle.

There are waiting areas near the jetty in the form of chai khanas (tea stalls) where endless cups of sweetened milky tea may be had, even on credit, since people here are related to or are known to each other.

Mallah is old enough to remember a time when Deh Bublo was a major town, if not a city. Pointing to the market place with a stick he said: ‘’There was a post office, a proper school, a customs and revenue office, and a police station.’’

‘’Muslims, Sikhs and the Hindus lived here amicably till the Muslims shouted the slogan of Allah-o-Akbar (God is great), in 1947 [when India and Pakistan were partitioned on religious grounds] and the non-Muslims fled in a hurry, leaving all their property with us to pillage and usurp, ‘’Mallah reminisced.

‘’The barren land that you just came through to get here was once fertile. It was lush green. There were mango orchards, banana plantations, red rice, olive trees, coconut trees etc. We grew maize, barley and various lentils. It rained during the monsoons and we had ample fresh and clean water,’’ Mallah said.

The inhabitants of the Indus Delta who were predominantly farmers and herders have had to take to fishing in order to survive. ‘’Its only when our land became infertile that we turned to fishing,’’ says 56-year-old Abdullah Baloch.

Over the years Baloch lost 250 acres of cultivable land to the sea, some 50 buffaloes and around 80 goats. ‘’Altogether my family lost 3,500 acres. We were once considered big landlords in this place with farmers working for us. We even paid tax to the government. Now we don’t even have even an acre to plough,’’ he says wistfully.

According to the revenue department, 86 percent of the 235,485 acres of fertile land in Kharo Chhan has been swallowed by the sea. The population, over the past decade, has declined from 15,000 to 5,000.

Migratory birds like the red cranes, swans and geese would come in droves. Now, even the birds peculiar to this part have disappeared, said Shafi Mohammad Murghar, head of Delta Development Organisation, a local non-governmental organisation.

According to Murghar, the degradation of mangrove forests, loss of fresh water supply and the change in climatic pattern have not only disturbed the nesting and breeding patterns of birds but have also resulted in the birds changing their routes completely.

Mallah believes that the land has been ravaged by seawater intrusion – something that environmentalists have been crying hoarse about for the past three decades.

As the sweet waters of the mighty Indus get increasingly diverted by dams and other projects upstream, there just is not enough left to battle the seawater pushing its way inwards. ‘’And this ingress of brackish seawater,‘’ says Mallah ‘’is the reason why swathes of fertile tract have become barren.”

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By Katrina Manson

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – In the time it takes for a lovingly crafted art house movie to emerge as winner of the top prize at Burkina Faso’s pan-African FESPACO cinema festival, Nigeria’s prolific producers will already have churned out another 50 films.

They might be tales of cannibalism, sorcery and jealous girlfriends who shrink their errant boyfriends into bottles, but Nigeria’s $450 million home video industry is the third biggest in the world, after America’s Hollywood and India’s Bollywood.

By contrast, FESPACO’s filmmakers — considered the best on the continent — rely on dwindling donations, and scrabble for private financing and poor distribution deals amid a spate of cinema closures.
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By MARJORIE COHN

Seven newly released memos from the Bush Justice Department reveal a concerted strategy to cloak the President with power to override the Constitution. The memos provide “legal” rationales for the President to suspend freedom of speech and press; order warrantless searches and seizures, including wiretaps of U.S. citizens; lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely in the United States without criminal charges; send suspected terrorists to other countries where they will likely be tortured; and unilaterally abrogate treaties. According to the reasoning in the memos, Congress has no role to check and balance the executive. That is the definition of a police state.

Who wrote these memos? All but one were crafted in whole or in part by the infamous John Yoo and Jay Bybee, authors of the so-called “torture memos” that redefined torture much more narrowly than the U.S. definition of torture, and counseled the President how to torture and get away with it. In one memo, Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.
What does the federal maiming statute prohibit? It makes it a crime for someone “with the intent to torture, maim, or disfigure” to “cut, bite, or slit the nose, ear or lip, or cut out or disable the tongue, or put out or destroy an eye, or cut off or disable a limb or any member of another person.” It further prohibits individuals from “throwing or pouring upon another person any scalding water, corrosive acid, or caustic substance” with like intent.

The two torture memos were later withdrawn after they became public because their legal reasoning was clearly defective. But they remained in effect long enough to authorize the torture and abuse of many prisoners in U.S. custody.

The seven memos just made public were also eventually disavowed, several years after they were written. Steven Bradbury, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in Bush’s Department of Justice, issued two disclaimer memos – on October 6, 2008 and January 15, 2009 – that said the assertions in those seven memos did “not reflect the current views of this Office.” Why Bradbury waited until Bush was almost out of office to issue the disclaimers remains a mystery. Some speculate that Bradbury, knowing the new administration would likely release the memos, was trying to cover his backside.

Indeed, Yoo, Bybee and Bradbury are the three former Justice Department lawyers that the Office of Professional Responsibility singled out for criticism in its still unreleased report. The OPR could refer these lawyers for state bar discipline or even recommend criminal charges against them.

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by Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai

“blame Blagoevich…Barack’s Obama’s blessing…
burst basement pipes…murder vigil candelight.”

i make these tongue twisters of my old reports (even
my student ones) to get my speed, my agility faster.

i’m at the point where i have to
decide whether i want to go national
or stay local. they’re two totally
different tracks you know. i went to
journalism school at northwestern and
unlike a lot of my classmates i started
working right away. i’m still living
with my parents in deerfield, but i’m
going to move to the city as soon as i can.

it is honestly a lot of work.

i got this lavender suit over at bloomie’s,
and i can’t remember the last time i left
the house without concealer on. you know,
you always have to be camera-ready.

it’ll be nice one day, when i can finally
sit behind that newsdesk and read from
a teleprompter. lucky me, i’ll probably
have to wait for linda yu or nesita kwan
to die off. can’t have too many of them
telling the news all at once you know. in
rotation, in succession, you have to wait your
turn, you know.

i never wanted to be a newscaster.

what i really wanted to be was a veterinarian instead,
giving heartworm pills to dogs, sticking iv’s into dead cats.
to be able to go home, since there really
are no major emergencies with golden retrievers.

but as they say, the news never stops. and i’m
getting better on-camera, more confident.
i kept slurring my s’s and l’s when i first
started. “There have been six slayings on the
the South…like last losing season of the White Sox…
Bulls leap large…scaffolding swings off skyscrapers.”

always have to keep smiling, in a serious way though.

most of my assignments now are shootings, it’s really
depressing. sometimes, i get there fast enough to see
the body. sometimes, it’s just cops, family, friends, people
on the block who want to get on camera. englewood.
little village. garfield.

if i told you what i see on an average week, it’d probably
make you want to throw up right here on the spot.

even it’s a cold summer or a hot summer, a freezing winter
or a mild one, i will still be there in my pantyhose, like
the postal service, through rain, sleet, or snow, with my hair
done, make-up, ready to report for you.

in a way that you can handle it: face smashed down in asphalt,
boys killed execution-style and thrown in a garbage can, mother
and child offed by an ex-ex boyfriend.

509 caskets in Chicago this year, and i feel like i saw them all.
limp, waiting to be carried off. the cops who don’t know anything,
don’t find anything. everyone on the street: curious, but close-lipped.
until i and the cameras are gone. lucky for you, you get to watch it
from your living room. that is, if it’s not outside your window.

oop, gotta run — duty calls.

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s website

By Moni Mohsin

It was December 2007, and General Pervez Musharraf had declared a state of Emergency in Pakistan. He suspended the Constitution, banned all independent television channels, and sacked the country’s senior judiciary. The streets were thronged with protestors raising their fists and chanting, “Go, Musharraf, go!”
In London I took part in a protest outside the Pakistani High Commission. It was a smallish demonstration, mainly comprising Pakistani undergraduates at the University of London. We chanted slogans against the General and called for a return to the rule of law. Then a student in a beanie took the microphone and sang a poem. Written by Faiz, the great Pakistani poet who spent four years in jail under General Ayub Khan’s martial law, the poem, “Hum Dekhain Gay”—“We Shall See,” has become an anthem of resistance for the people of Pakistan. As I stood on that chilly pavement and listened to the young man’s full–throated voice, I was filled with profound sadness. More than twenty–five years ago, I had sung this very song on the streets of Lahore. I, too, was an impassioned student then, and I, too, had protested the tyranny of a military dictator. I, too, had believed that that would be the last martial law we would experience.

Though outraged by General Musharraf’s strong–arm tactics, Pakistanis were not despondent. The economy was strong and foreign investors looked favorably upon Pakistan as an emerging market. A national election was in the offing, and Benazir Bhutto, emerging from years of exile the leader of Pakistan’s largest and most popular political party, had returned to contest it. Though religious extremists had dug into the Tribal Areas in the north, Benazir vowed to flush them out and, with American backing, end their reign of terror. Relations with India were calmer and more open than even before. There was everything to play for.

Today that optimism has vanished. A civilian government replaced Musharraf, but Pakistan faces economic collapse: rampant inflation, unbridled capital flight, and a nose–diving rupee. Benazir Bhutto is dead, killed by the very militants she had pledged to eradicate. Islamist insurgents have annexed chunks of Pakistani territory abutting Afghanistan. A bitter civil war has made refugees of 200,000 civilians. The army, fighting its own people, is demoralised and divided. The same Pakistanis who were agitating on the streets last November are afraid to step out today; roadside and suicide bombs have killed and maimed thousands in the last year. Pakistan has reached a tipping point. How and why did it unravel so fast?
Pakistan’s problems are not new. Established in 1947 as a homeland for the Muslims of the Subcontinent, its Islamic and secular identities have been in conflict ever since. In Pakistan’s sixty–year history, a corrupt, self–serving ruling class of land owners; a crooked bureaucracy; a boom–and–bust economy; long–simmering tensions with India over Kashmir; and a huge, powerful army that regularly enlists in coups have repeatedly thwarted progress. I do not recall a sustained period of peace, stability, and prosperity during my lifetime.

I was born during General Ayub Khan’s martial law. I was a child when General Yahya seized power in another coup and presided over the dismemberment of Pakistan. I was a teenager when General Zia–ul–Haq imposed his martial law, hanged the elected Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and ushered in Islamism. By 1999 when General Musharraf ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and sent him into exile, I had married and moved to London.

I remember vividly the 1971 war with India that led to the secession of East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh. I remember the air sirens, the black–outs, the sound of strafing at night. I can see the L–shaped trench in our back garden, hear the whoosh of low–flying fighter planes and remember the solemnity of our driver’s face as he announced that we were sure to defeat India because he had seen a mighty silver scimitar shimmering in the dawn sky. And I recall with absolute clarity the day my ten–year–old elder brother ran across the garden toward me, screaming, “We’ve surrendered! We’ve lost! We’ve lost East Pakistan!”

Of Zia–ul–Haq’s martial law which began in 1977, my memories are of an altogether different order. On the day the mustachioed general arrested Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and assured the nation that he would hold elections in ninety days, I was attending the wedding of a family friend. In the midst of the festivities, a child shouted at the assembled guests, “Come and watch! There’s a soldier inside TV!” Zia stayed for eleven years.

I was one of many who expressed quiet relief when Musharraf seized power in 1999.

Until his plane fell out of the sky in 1988, he brutalized an entire nation. He banned political parties and jailed activists. He had journalists who did not toe the military line flogged. Having ousted a populist leader, Zia used Islam to bolster his appeal. Only painters of Qur’anic calligraphy and anodyne landscapes were allowed to exhibit in public galleries. He shut down movie theatres, declared dancers obscene, and silenced poets. Female newscasters on television were forced to cover their heads, and secular music and television programs were replaced by Qur’anic recitals and interminable debates among bearded ulema (scholars) on whether it was a sin to be left–handed and if the name Mohammed could be abbreviated to Mohd without displeasing God.

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(Submitted by a reader)