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