Wednesday, March 31, 2021
#Pakistan - Women during the pandemic
ONE year ago, the world ran on different rules. The rhythm of day was different, the management of time was different, people behaved differently and were scared of different things. One custom of that bygone pre-pandemic world was the division of male and female work and space.
In Pakistan, where the number of females in the workforce is below 30 per cent, women mostly stayed at home and men went to work. When the men left in the morning, the women turned to the repetitive tasks of washing and cooking that make a household run efficiently.
All of this changed when the pandemic hit. Men began to stay at home either because they lost their job or because their employer wanted them to work from home. The small respite that their wives and mothers and sisters had during the day when men did not dominate and demand this or that was taken away from the women. As men stayed home day after day, they required waiting on, a cup of tea now, a meal prepared fresh not just for dinner but also for lunch. They dirtied dishes and created a mess.
Schools also closed and the children too made their own demands, their own messes, trapped as they were in the home. Pakistani women thus were caught in a 24/7 cycle of work, trying to sate appetites, calm tempers and maintain harmony in an uncertain and constrained world.
The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.
Women everywhere are the primary casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, having had to pay the price whether or not they were infected with the virus. Data from around the world substantiates this truth. In China, peer-reviewed studies reveal a 300pc increase in violence against women. In Lebanon, there has been a 45pc increase in violence against women. In the United Kingdom, violence against women has doubled from the 10-year average. Similar increases in violence have also been reported in Germany and Tunisia. Next door in India, the onset of the pandemic has led to at least a 21pc increase in violence against women.
The statistics quoted here are all from peer-reviewed studies in journals. It is very likely that the situation is far worse than what is being reported. In Pakistan, social workers and those who work in shelters and in other facilities that attend to abused women, report an exponential increase. The constant presence of men and the absence of any external outlet for women have created a pressure-cooker situation.
In much of the country, women have to ask male permission to leave the home even for essential tasks; now going out and getting any kind of respite from violence has become completely impossible. Visits from family members and meeting others at family occasions (which used to function as a means to ensure that women were not being maltreated) have ceased, giving abusive men carte blanche to do whatever they want to the women at home.
The situation of working women is just as bad. Those who have been told to work from home find that no one in the household seems to understand that they have to attend to work duties during work hours. These women find themselves forced to watch children and also be available for Zoom calls or other work interactions. Many others, like the 250,000 American women who were let go of by their employers in January 2021, have just lost their jobs and their income. The pandemic has set them years behind their male counterparts in career advancement.
The meaning of all these statistics is that in the post-pandemic world women will be at an even greater disadvantage than they were before it started. Those Pakistani working women who have either been fired or have had to quit their jobs because of the pandemic may not be able to return to work after it is over. The ability to bring in an income plays a huge role in the power women wield in their households; the lost earning potential, therefore will reduce their ability to make decisions in the household and to protect their own rights. This resection of women from the workforce is likely to have society-wide effects where cultural mores that keep women out of the workplace will be strengthened.
None of these realities are being talked about in Pakistan. This past International Women’s Day, a television channel hosted a conservative female social worker who could not stop talking about how the pandemic was a blessing in disguise because it permitted families to spend quality time with each other. Some in government have also propagated this kind of fantasy because very few, if any, efforts have been made to collect statistics about exactly how many women are being abused. Nor has there been any work done to provide additional resources to shelters and legal aid cells who are trying to help these women. Instead, the ludicrous fantasy that imagines families living together without any conflict and without women waiting on everyone else all the time, has been nursed and propagated.
Pakistan needs to wake up. The women of the country cannot be expected to shoulder all the burden of housekeeping, childcare, studies and work from home. Vaccinations are now available for the Covid-19 virus but no pre-emptive solution is present for a society and a world that has just been heaping the entire burden of a terrible and catastrophic event on its women. Men must be held answerable for the cruelty and selfishness they have exhibited this past year, attitudes that they have never questioned or considered. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and indeed that is what has happened to many Pakistani males who stand and watch and live their lives, oblivious to the burdens and abuse they heap on Pakistani women.
#Pakistan - The Punjab debacle
Pakistan’s National Education Policy Discriminates Against Religious Minorities
According to Asia News, The Working Group for Inclusive Education (WGIE) and the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) held a meeting on March 20 to discuss solutions for Pakistan’s low education standards and religious discrimination before the launch of the new National Education Policy (NEP).
Pakistan will implement the NEP in the near future. It is a new policy that “provides for compulsory Islamiat (Islamic studies) for all students of all faiths. This will drive many non-Muslim primary school pupils to drop out,” says Abdul Hameed Nayyar, an experienced educator in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s NEP pushes for a religious-based society, where Muslim-focused materials are mandatory starting in first grade. Non-Muslim students will not be allowed to study from the Quaran, and teachers will separate them from Muslim students. Religious discrimination will further set back non-Muslim students from an already low national literacy standard.
https://www.persecution.org/2021/03/23/pakistans-national-education-policy-discriminates-religious-minorities/
Should Pakistan apologize to Bangladesh for the 1971 war?
https://www.dw.com/en/should-pakistan-apologize-to-bangladesh-for-the-1971-war/a-57051549
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
#China - Xi stresses role of revolutionary cultural relics in inspiring people
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of better protecting, managing and utilizing revolutionary cultural relics to inspire people to build a modern socialist China and achieve national rejuvenation.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during his recent instruction on work related to the country's revolutionary cultural relics.
Revolutionary cultural relics hold the glorious history of the heroic struggles of the CPC and the people, and are records of the great course and touching actions of the Chinese revolution, Xi noted during his instruction, calling them valuable assets of the CPC and the country.
They can serve as vivid teaching materials for the promotion of revolutionary traditions and culture, and socialist cultural-ethical progress, and for inspiring a strong sense of patriotism and invigorating the Chinese ethos, said Xi.
Improving the protection, management and utilization of revolutionary cultural relics, he said, is the common responsibility of the Party and the whole Chinese society.
It is a job that should be put high on the agenda of Party committees and governments at various levels and entails greater efforts, said Xi, highlighting the importance of giving full play to the role of revolutionary cultural relics in education related to Party history, revolutionary traditions and patriotism.
A national conference on revolutionary cultural relics was held in Beijing on Tuesday, during which Xi's instruction was delivered by Sun Chunlan, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and China's vice premier.
Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at the event that Xi's instruction provides a fundamental guideline for work on revolutionary cultural relics in the new era, and called for its full implementation to break new ground in the work.
http://en.people.cn/n3/2021/0330/c90000-9834096.html
I love my boyfriend – but I really don't want to have sex with him
#Pakistan - Inventing cultural nostalgia
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
I HAVE just finished watching a short smartphone video of seven- to 10-year-old kids playing in some dusty, Seraiki-speaking village of south Punjab. Each boy has fashioned for himself a crude wood and tin sword, ensconced in a scabbard tied to his shalwar’s narra. What’s it for, asks the off-camera interviewer, who seems to be enjoying himself. I’m a Muslim, says one proudly, pulling out his sword and waving it in the air. It’s for cutting off the heads of kafirs. Your name? Ertugrul, he replies. These children are thoroughly excited. Dozens of amateur videos — some with drama and mock sword fights leading to fallen cross-marked Christian soldiers — are circulating on the internet. Until two years ago, Ertugrul was a name unknown in Pakistan but the Turkish documentary series, Dirilis: Ertugrul, has taken the country by storm. Statues of the new horse-mounted, sword-wielding hero abound in public places. The rise to fame owes to full official backing and promotion at the highest level. So much so that, in spite of being beseeched by the survivors and families of a dozen impoverished Hazara coal miners murdered by IS militants, Prime Minister Imran Khan chose to meet with the visiting Dirilis production team in Islamabad instead of flying to Balochistan. Glorifying violence & conquest through fictionalized history will have devastating consequences for Pakistan. Ertugrul bears comparison with another massively fictionalised character, King Richard I, who led the third crusade against the Muslim defenders of Jerusalem. One thousand years ago, every boy and man in England had dreamed of following their valiant king into battle and cutting off a Muslim’s head. Although Richard I ultimately failed in his crusade, he too was mythologised and earned the title Richard the Lionheart. Like Ertugrul, he was the perfect heroic leader — brave, wise, and just. Such fabrications of history are by no means limited to Pakistan. Wave after wave of collective narcissism is crashing across the globe, helped along by the machinery of nation states with populists at their helms. Across our borders, Indian nationalism is dying. Resurgent saffronised Hindu nationalism claiming a mythical past is replacing it. Shivaji sword replicas are now popular in India. Hindutva’s founders, Golwalkar and Savarkar, have new mass followings. These admirers of Adolf Hitler were 20th-century ideologues who promoted the Hindu-first philosophy. As Indian historian Ramachandra Guha recently remarked, “the Hindutva agenda wants to put forth the notion that Hindus are the best, the Hindi language is the best, and the hatred of Pakistan is a must to be a true Indian citizen and a patriot”. In America — at least for now — revivalism and revanchism are on the back foot with Trump’s defeat. But this may not last long. His black-hating, Muslim-hating, foreigner-hating Republican base is already rallying alongside him, urging him to fight the presidential election in 2024 and win back a ‘rigged election’. Like Trump, they want to make white America great again. What in the human condition makes possible the conjoining of space-age science with stone-age politics? We can attribute the lionisation of Richard I to the general stupidity of Englishmen from a primitive age. But as country after country places its spacecraft on or around Mars, the question of why political cultures are regressing comes to every thinking person’s mind. To me it seems that the core of the problem is cultural nostalgia. The word ‘nostalgia’ originated from the medical literature and was first seen in the 17th century as a psychological condition found among certain Swiss soldiers who had become inordinately attached to past memories because of long absences from home. In modern times, psychologists have observed that individuals suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease suddenly burst into tears, applause, or expressions of pleasure upon encountering some blast from the past — a picture, song, or even a smell. I would define cultural nostalgia as collective, societal nostalgia and, in excess, also a disease. In her book, The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym lays out two main plots — the return to origins, and conspiracy. So, on the one hand, there is deep longing for a pure unsullied past which lies in the twilight zone between history and memory. On the other, there are schemers and plotters who conspire to spoil the utopia for their own selfish motives. Progress hasn’t cured nostalgia, it has exacerbated it. Boym says that nostalgia “inevitably reappears as a defence mechanism in a time of accelerated rhythms and historical upheavals”. So, even though it was initially understood as a longing for a lost place, she proposes that nostalgia should instead be seen as “a longing for a different time” that results from being unable to cope with progress. Pakistan’s preoccupation with Ertugrul shares some similarities with what Boym has examined but has additional complexities. For one, its society is being actively goaded into inventing nostalgia for a culture that it never knew and which has never been its own. The language and manners of Arabs and Turks are alien to Pakistanis. So, is the present infatuation with Turkish culture temporary? Will the shift away from Arabism towards Turkism be long lasting or deep? Will we ever realise that Pakistan’s real cultures belong to our own soil? More worrying is the evident desire of our culture managers to form a self-image of Pakistan as a warrior nation besieged by hostile forces. Only war is admired — not music, art or science. So, even though Arab or Turkish cultures are considered superior and worthy of emulation, nothing is being copied from their scholarly and intellectual traditions. This points to the poverty of thought in Pakistan. Some days ago, the current HEC chairman asked a gathering of university students and professors if they could name a single Pakistani philosopher. There was silence. Creating a make-believe world can have beneficial consequences. We tell stories to children so that their imaginations may soar. But taking the creations of one’s own mind too seriously can be devastating, especially if they idolise violence and conquest. What will the little boys with little swords that I saw grow up to be? I don’t even want to think about it. https://www.dawn.com/news/1610983/inventing-cultural-nostalgia#COVID: #Pakistan comes under fire for holding Republic Day military parade
Pakistan held a pompous ceremony to show off its military strength at a time when the government lacks funds to procure COVID-19 vaccines and as the Sputnik V doses go on sale at a steep price in the country.
Pakistan held its Republic Day parade on Thursday — two days later than initially planned — exhibiting its military might in a grand official ceremony. The colorful event saw troops parading in Islamabad, the army showcasing long-range missiles, and the air force flying fighter jets over the capital.Every year, Pakistan commemorates Republic Day (also called Pakistan Day) on March 23, but this year the authorities postponed it for two days due to bad weather.The focus of the official Republic Day ceremonies is the exhibition of the South Asian country's military strength. President Arif Alvi and army chief Qamar Bajwa received a guard of honor from military troops. "We will defend our independence at all costs," Alvi said, adding that Pakistan desired peace, security and development in the whole region. "Pakistan wants to move forward with good intent and peace, but our desire for peace should not be construed as our weakness," he added. Prime Minister Imran Khan did not participate in the main ceremony as he is currently in quarantine after contracting the coronavirus. Economic downturn The military parade on Thursday was dubbed "unnecessary" by many people in the country, as Pakistan is currently facing a dire economic situation due to the pandemic. Coronavirus cases are once again on the rise in the country, and the government says it does not have enough funds to purchase COVID vaccines. Pakistan is also one of the few countries in the world that have approved the commercial sale of COVID vaccines. According to unconfirmed estimates, the Republic Day military parade cost billions of rupees (millions of euros). DW contacted Kamran Ali Afzal, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, to find out the exact figure but did not receive any response. The military parade proves that the government's priorities are flawed, experts say. "Military strength without economic stability is hollow. Wars are fought with tanks, fighter planes and warships, which need fuel that is bought with money. For this we need a strong economy," Kaiser Bengali, an economist, told DW. COVID concerns Health experts are also wary of a "third coronavirus wave" in the country and question the government's decision to hold a public gathering to commemorate Republic Day. "The Republic Day public gathering can spread the virus even more. At least the government should not have held a public ceremony. All such events should be avoided until 75% of the population is vaccinated," Qaiser Sajjad, secretary-general of the Pakistan Medical Association, told DW.Burzine Waghmar, from the Center for the Study of Pakistan at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, says that "responsive, responsible and truly representative governments take cognizance of their citizen's sentiments when convening national events during the pandemic.""A year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, nothing remotely encouraging has been undertaken by PM Imran Khan, whose leadership has been, in a word, underwhelming," Waghmar told DW. The Muslim-majority country has so far recorded around 641,000 COVID cases and around 14,000 related deaths. From less than 900 cases a day in mid-February, Pakistan is currently seeing close to 4,000 cases on a daily basis. Experts say the actual number could be much higher as many cases go unreported in the country. Indian 'threat' But the government insists that the show of military strength is necessary in the face of security threats posed by regional rival India. "These events show our military capabilities in response to India's aggression. We want to show that we are ready to deal with it," Amjad Shoaib, a retired army general and defense analyst, told DW. Waghmar said Pakistanis are "long inured to pyrrhic successes being paraded for public consumption." Shoaib disagrees: "The parade boosts public morale. At the same time, we want to give a message that Pakistan wants peace through dialogue in the region." https://www.dw.com/en/covid-pakistan-comes-under-fire-for-holding-republic-day-military-parade/a-56987646#Pakistan - Coronavirus surge: Government needs to start acting
Germany: Free #Baluchistan Movement protest against the occupation of Baluchistan
#Pakistan - Sacking of Finance Minister is victory of PDM: Bilawal Bhutto
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that Dr Abdul hafeez Shaikh being sacked as the Finance Minister is a victory for the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
The PPP leader, in a tweet on Monday, termed the Finance Minister’s ouster as a victory of PDM as the government needed Hafeez Shaikh to be elected as a senator to continue on his post. His senate defeat at the hands of Yousaf Raza Gillani made that impossible, he added.
Bilawal said that now, the government admits that inflation is skyrocketing because of its failed policies.
“Parliamentary opposition proven most effective vs this regime”, he said.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz confirmed that Hammad Azhar would replace Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as the country’s Finance Minister.
https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/594751-Sacking-Finance-Minister-victory-PDM-Bilawal-Bhutto
#PPP gears up for in-house change in Punjab
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will approach Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly for bringing in-house change in the biggest federating unit of the country, said PPP Parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza while talking to mediamen here on Monday. “We have begun our activities for an in-house change in Punjab. People will hear a good news after Eidul Fitr as more than two dozen legislators of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) are in contact with us,” he said, adding, PPP has already offered PML-N to bring forward its candidate for the slot of chief minister.
Murtaza said PPP had decided to approach Hamza Shehbaz with proposal to nominate candidate for the CM keeping in view its numerical strength. He said the PPP would support PML-N in this regard. “The PML-N has 165 members against 181 of the PTI in the 371-strong house. The PPP enjoys the support of only seven MPAs,” he said, adding, the PML-N has the right to the slot of Chief Minister as around 30 members of the ruling party are contacting to express their concerns at the deteriorating economic, political and law and order situation in Punjab and asking why the Opposition is not grabbing the opportunity to rid the province of what he says incompetent Buzdar government.
The PPP leader asserted that the Opposition will be held responsible for destruction of Punjab if it doesn’t act against the incumbent rulers now.
https://nation.com.pk/30-Mar-2021/ppp-gears-up-for-in-house-change-in-punjab
Monday, March 29, 2021
The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are very effective in real-world conditions at preventing infections, the C.D.C. reported.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/world/pfizer-moderna-covid-vaccines-infection.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
##PashtunLongMarch2Islamabad - #PTM leaders released from prison
After the arrest of Pashtun Tahafuzz Movement (PTM) leaders, Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen and Mohsin Dawar were released on Monday.
Pashteen and Dawar were due to attend a rally but were detained by the Pakistani police the day before.
Mohsin Dawar is also a member of Pakistan’s national Assembly.
According to reports many demonstrators from the Jani Khel area have marched toward Islamabad on Sunday to protest against the brutal murder of four Pashtun youth from Bannu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mohsin Dawar announced their release from the prison in a tweet, he said we have been released “earlier” this morning.
Dawar also appreciated the resilience of participants of Pashtun long march to Islamabad.
#Pakistan - #PPP condemns state violence against Jani Khel protestors
#Pakistan - Chairman #PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemns the arrest of MNA Mohsin Dawar
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Republicans have taken up the politics of bigotry, putting US democracy at risk
Robert Reich
There is no ‘surge’ of migrants at the border and there is no huge voter fraud problem – there is only hard-right attack.R
epublicans are outraged – outraged! – at the surge of migrants at the southern border. The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, declares it a “crisis … created by the presidential policies of this new administration”. The Arizona congressman Andy Biggs claims, “we go through some periods where we have these surges, but right now is probably the most dramatic that I’ve seen at the border in my lifetime.”
Donald Trump demands the Biden administration “immediately complete the wall, which can be done in a matter of weeks – they should never have stopped it. They are causing death and human tragedy.”
“Our country is being destroyed!” he adds.
In fact, there’s no surge of migrants at the border.
US Customs and Border Protection apprehended 28% more migrants from January to February this year than in previous months. But this was largely seasonal. Two years ago, apprehensions increased 31% during the same period. Three years ago, it was about 25% from February to March. Migrants start coming when winter ends and the weather gets a bit warmer, then stop coming in the hotter summer months when the desert is deadly.
To be sure, there is a humanitarian crisis of children detained in overcrowded border facilities. And an even worse humanitarian tragedy in the violence and political oppression in Central America, worsened by US policies over the years, that drives migration in the first place.
But the “surge” has been fabricated by Republicans in order to stoke fear – and, not incidentally, to justify changes in laws they say are necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting.
To stop this, Democrats are trying to enact a sweeping voting rights bill, the For the People Act, which protects voting, ends partisan gerrymandering and keeps dark money out of elections. It passed the House but Republicans in the Senate are fighting it with more lies.
On Wednesday, the Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz falsely claimed the new bill would register millions of undocumented migrants to vote and accused Democrats of wanting the most violent criminals to cast ballots too.
The core message of the Republican party now consists of lies about a “crisis” of violent migrants crossing the border, lies that they’re voting illegally, and blatantly anti-democratic demands voting be restricted to counter it.
The party that once championed lower taxes, smaller government, states’ rights and a strong national defense now has more in common with anti-democratic regimes and racist-nationalist political movements around the world than with America’s avowed ideals of democracy, rule of law and human rights.
Donald Trump isn’t single-handedly responsible for this, but he demonstrated to the GOP the political potency of bigotry and the GOP has taken him up on it.
This transformation in one of America’s two eminent political parties has shocking implications, not just for the future of American democracy but for the future of democracy everywhere.
“I predict to you, your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy?” Joe Biden opined at his news conference on Thursday.
In his maiden speech at the state department on 4 March, Antony Blinken conceded that the erosion of democracy around the world is “also happening here in the United States”.
The secretary of state didn’t explicitly talk about the Republican party, but there was no mistaking his subject.
“When democracies are weak … they become more vulnerable to extremist movements from the inside and to interference from the outside,” he warned.
People around the world witnessing the fragility of American democracy “want to see whether our democracy is resilient, whether we can rise to the challenge here at home. That will be the foundation for our legitimacy in defending democracy around the world for years to come.”
That resilience and legitimacy will depend in large part on whether Republicans or Democrats prevail on voting rights.
Not since the years leading up to the civil war has the clash between the nation’s two major parties so clearly defined the core challenge facing American democracy.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/28/republicans-politics-bigotry-democracy-risk-border-voter-fraud-trump-biden
A maulana burned a sofa in Islamabad. But that isn’t the only thing burning in Pakistan
