Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine covers a wide spectrum, from the credible, such as herbal medicines, to the ludicrous, such as healing by touching. Along the spectrum, the habits of us Mirpuris probably lie closer to the ludicrous end, as shown by the popularity of pirs, or faith healers.

Often those who visit pirs have vague, undefined symptoms, such as ‘tightness’ in the head or aching bones. Some people may well experience a reduction in symptoms after a visit to the pir, but this is more to do with dubious symptoms together with the mental reassurance which goes with visiting a pir, as distinct from a three-minute visit to a more bureaucratic NHS doctor.

In so far as pirs offer reassurance and comfort, there is nothing wrong with visiting them. They can, for example, be part of the disease management process. But to suggest that the intervention of a pir can affect a biochemical change in the body, and thus cure an illness, is ludicrous.

Attitudes to work

When I arrived in the office yesterday morning, I noticed something interesting. A cleaning lady, not far off from 60, had her leg bandaged up and was supported by a crutch. Yet she had come into work. After exchanging the normal Monday morning greetings, she explained what happened and was grateful that her employer had shown consideration by adjusting her duties. She seemed pleased by that.

She should really have been at home, yet her situation got me thinking about work and health and attitudes to them. I tried to imagine British Mirpuri and Pakistani women of a similar age- and indeed a large number of men of that age. When our people reach that age, they start complaining of health problems. Sometimes they are real, like heart disease. At other times, the ailments are undefined and unspecific- just severely aching bones, tiredness, breathlessness and the like. Heaven forbid that they should work. Those that do are often dismissed as wretched.

Ramadan

In the last week of Ramadan, it is well to do a sort of spiritual stock take. Has spirituality gone up, down or remained the same? I suspect in most cases it has made no difference, because, unfortunately, for most people fasting is no more than a ritual, albeit a very painful one. Few people understand the enormity of a month in which deprivation of bodily needs becomes the key to spiritual nourishment.

Abstaining from food and drink is only one aspect of Ramadan. The other crucial part is abstaining from other vices- like lying, back biting, hurting the feelings of others and waste and a litany of other vices. On all these accounts, people fail. I see evidence of these and other vices everywhere, with not even a special attempt being made to control them.

Of Monks and Lawyers

What do monks and lawyers have in common? At first sight, you may say very little. One group cultivates the spirit; the other gathers gold. In South Asia, though, they do have something in common: opposition to military dictatorship. Pakistani lawyers were out on the streets months before Burmese monks did the same. Both have been met with an iron fist.

Here the similarity ends. In Burma, the monks are the good guys, with whom Brown and Bush are happy to associate and to deliver homilies to their tormentors. In Pakistan, the lawyers are on the wrong side. They are opposing a good guy, our military man.

Let those Western leaders who like to sit on a pedestal to lecture the wrong sorts of dictators know that such ironies are not lost on people.