'War on terror’

It is well known that the war on terror has given an excuse to many unsavoury regimes to suppress those with legitimate grievances. Now, according to the Mirror last Friday, the war on terror has afforded an opportunity of another sort. According to the paper, a London cop was caught surreptitiously filming up women’s skirts. When caught, the cop claimed he was filming as part of an anti-terror operation. The images stored on his camera told a different story. I wonder what will come next as part of the war on terror?

Middle East woes

I don’t like writing blog entries about the Middle East. This is partly because the picture there is so depressing and partly because so much is written about the area that what I have to say would add absolutely nothing.

Nevertheless, I would like to make several points. The first concerns Blair’s unflinching support for Bush, not a millimetre hither or thither. There is a lot of spin and humbug in politics, yet in the current Lebanon crisis there is not even the pretence of impartiality. There is unflinching support for Israel. Not even call for proportion. What signal does this send to moderates, who the West is so keen to cultivate?

The ease with which Israel has been able to ride roughshod over Lebanon sends another powerful signal to nations in the region and elsewhere. Arm yourself or perish! Weakness invites aggression.

Finally, there is the nauseating suggestion that this is good for Lebanon. Let me be clear: it is not in any nation’s interest to have an armed group within its borders. But the idea that killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians in retaliation for the kidnap of two soldiers is good for Lebanon beggars belief.

Richer areas at risk of disease

Children living in richer areas are at higher risk of getting cancer, according to a study by scientists. (See the BBC). I have a solution for this risk. The drive to abolish poverty should be stopped. The rich should be made poorer, perhaps through higher taxation. To avoid any of the extra revenues being spent on poverty reduction, they should be ring-fenced for specific purposes, such as for building overcrowded accommodation to house the rich when they can no longer afford to stay in their mansions.

Management 'training'

I was recently given the chance to attend an all-day ‘course’ aimed at managers. It was run by a consultant, who no doubt charged a handsome fee. Because some of the managers couldn’t make it, it was opened up to other employees, as the consultant would charge his full fee anyway. The course was entitled ‘Managing change’.

And what a useless exercise it was. It began with a role play game. I forget what the game was or what management wisdom it was meant to elucidate. All I remember is that it was a good laugh and some of the commentary on our performance was overly pedantic.

After that, the whole day was an utter waste of time. The well-remunerated management consultants do no more than present common sense, albeit nicely dressed. Sometimes they do not even do that. Rather, they ask some commonsense questions and the participants, in true interactive fashion, supply the commonsense answers. This method of bringing to the surface what we already know does have a history, of course, as it was how Socrates discussed philosophical issues with his students. But that is beside the point.

Work life

Over the weekend I met someone, after many years, who told me that he works in a small/mid-sized firm. He spoke about work problems. He referred to the fact that he was taken on as a health and safety expert, but was doing work well out of his remit and job description. Because of the size of the firm, everyone was expected to ‘help out’, no matter what the task. He also spoke about a culture of suspicion, caused in part by the fact that all contracts of employment were individually negotiated, so that people did not have a clue about how much others were earning.

What I found very interesting is the therapeutic terms, characteristic of our times, in which the conversation was framed. He felt ‘depressed’ that he was doing routine work that he was not taken on to do. He was ‘worried’ about what others, earning less than him, might think. He was not sure how long he could ‘hack’ it. He felt ‘deskilled’ and ‘de-motivated’.

This, I thought, is the flexible labour market, so praised by politicians, in action. In the not too distant past, all the problems he referred to could have been dealt with through a trade union and collective endeavour. Working conditions, pay, contracts of employment- these would all fall under the role of trade unions. Now, the trade unions are much weakened and individuals are expected to deal with problems themselves. It is not surprising that the problems are framed in therapeutic terms.

Last word on the Azad Kashmiri elections

My final entry about the elections in Azad Kashmir. The Muslim Conference party has emerged as the largest party and with some minor horse trading, will be able to form a government quite comfortably. This is hardly surprising, when a conspiracy to break up the People’s Party was cooked up by the real power, which is Pakistan. They succeeded, and the pro-Pakistani establishment party will continue to ‘rule’.

The election has also decoupled merit and ability from politics (if there ever was a link). What is clear is that the first requirement is money, loads of it, to be able to buy off possible opponents and holders of vote banks. There, voting is hardly an individual act. Extended families vote the same people. The more united a wider ‘biradri’ is, the more worth it is to grease the palms of their leading members. I am not saying that meritocracy is perfect- indeed it can be quite exclusive, creating a meritocratic elite. . However it is a worthier standard compared to money and the ability to bribe.

Public participation in decision making...

My work life brings me into contact with issues relating to public involvement and participation in decision making by government. It seems to me that most attempts to engage the public in decision making are nothing more than empty gestures. It’s more about making the public sector feel good about going through the motions of engaging people than about empowering the public. Genuine involvement in decision making requires a redistribution of power.

A genuine attempt to redistribute power and engage the public would begin by transferring greater powers to localities. Turnout at local elections is extremely low, which is a symbol of disengagement. But the solution does not lie in consultations, focus groups and other groups made up of self-selected representatives. The solution lies in transferring more powers to the local level, e.g. the power to raise and vary taxes. It lies in giving local government more power over deciding priorities for health and education. If powers are redistributed in this way, the standing of locally elected councillors would increase and more people would vote. More high calibre candidates would be attracted to stand as councillors.

A genuine strengthening of local democracy is needed, not gimmickry.

Elections in Azad Kashmir....continued

Following on from yesterday’s theme of Azad Kashmiri elections, the news from the Dadyal constituency is that the sitting MP has lost the seat. He had worked tirelessly for the region, with visible signs of development everywhere. Nevertheless, he lost, for the simple reason that he was deselected as his party’s candidate and stood as an independent.

Independents have an uphill task. Unless they have substantial, personal local following, built up over many years, it is difficult for them to compete with political parties. Political parties are more than the individual members who represent them. Even if people are unsure of the party candidate, or have never heard of him, his or her anchorage in a political party means a lot of the marketing needed to win is done: everyone has heard of the parties. With independents, there is a huge task of reaching every nook and cranny of the constituency with a message. They do not have the same advantage as parties, where the message can be centrally delivered.

Here in the UK, there are only a few examples of independent candidates winning in recent years. In most cases, much depended on the standing and charisma of the person concerned. In one case, people were so outraged by the closure a local hospital that they voted in a doctor who was opposed to the closure.

In the absence of extra-ordinary personalities or burning local issues, independents face a struggle.

Elections in Azad Kashmir

Last week I wrote about the election fever in Azad Kashmir. Now the election has come and gone. The situation was dangerously tense right to the last moment and there were reports of violence from various parts of Azad Kashmir, including Dadyal, the area I am most interested in. I have 2 observations about the elections, particularly as a British Kashmiri.

First, it is clear that there was great thirst for information among the British Kashmiri community about the results. DM Digital, a Manchester-based digital channel aimed at the Kashmiri/ Pakistani community tried to fill that gap by arranging a studio discussion and announcing the results as they came in. However, not everyone has access to digital satellite TV. It was poorly organised, with the result being announced only once. It would have been more informative if the results were repeated, perhaps on an onscreen table, every 10 minutes, for the benefit of people who had just tuned in.

Second, there is the phenomena of ‘citizen-reporters’. This was evident from the callers to the DM Digital discussion. People were calling in to say, for example, ‘I’ve just spoken to my nephew and he says candidate x has won’. In many cases the ‘citizen-reporters’ contradicted what was being announced by the channel. Again, this underlines the importance of clear, objective information. The callers were clearly supporters of particular candidates.

Heatwave warning...

The Department of Health’s heat wave warning, at level 3 for the West Midlands, made me think of my visit to Pakistan in the summer of 1999. While I was there, rumour spread through the village that a well known local farm worker had ‘gone mad’ while working in a field. I later learnt that he had actually suffered from heatstroke, with confusion and disorientation being a known side effect. A few days later he was back to work.

I find it funny, however, that in our relatively tame summers, it only requires several days of temperatures to hover over or just below 30 degrees for micro-guidance to be issued on wearing ‘loose fitting clothes’, taking ‘cool showers or baths’ and eating ‘more cold food, particularly salads and fruit’.

All over the world, in hotter climes than ours, people know exactly how to cope with the extremes of weather, without having their hands held by the clerisy.

Election fever in Azad Kashmir

Mirpur is currently in the midst of election fever. If there are any readers interested in the elections, they will be aware that Azad Kashmiri politics have become topsy-turvy. The two party system is no more, after leading members of the opposition People’s Party split to form their own party. The ruling Muslim Conference party is also in disarray, after many sitting ministers were refused tickets to stand in the elections. They have in turn decided to run any way, as independents. Politicians who were formerly sworn enemies have become friends; those who had sworn vows of loyalty have become enemies.

Imagine if the Conservative Party splits into two and members of the Labour cabinet are de-selected as candidates for their constituencies. Then imagine some former Conservative ministers join Labour. To complicate matters further, imagine if some of Labour’s leading lights join the Conservatives. That is basically what has happened in Azad Kashmir.

Which all makes interesting reading and heightens the suspense about what will happen post July 11. But which also underlines the vacuity of politicians, who have very little by of ideas and convictions to offer.

Long term joblessness...

How does long term unemployment affect a person’s character? No doubt there are libraries full of books describing depression, anxiety and loss of self confidence as the consequences of being jobless.

In the case of long term unemployed British Pakistani men in their fifties, I have observed two ways in which character has been shaped by being jobless. First is turn to religion- not in any ominous sense of radicalisation. These are mature men with families, for whom stability is everything. Rather, praying five times a day, in the mosque, provides a sense of discipline, when, in a situation of long term joblessness, it is quite easy to lose all sense of time. What difference does time make if you do not have to worry about when to get up and when to go to bed?

Going to the mosque means you meet other people, which leads to the second way unemployment has affected British Pakistani men- the love of gossiping. You can see men standing on street corners talking about anything from the invasion of Iraq to their children’s marriage problems.

Those who don’t go the mosque and meet other people become introverted and suffer some of the problems generally associated with joblessness. Work is good for us because it provides, among other things, a less emotionally charged place than the family. The problems of joblessness can be lessened if another outlet can be found to meet this need.