Pakistan and cyberspace...

What is behind Pakistan’s drive to criminalise cyberspace by introducing draconian measures based on vague and indeterminate infractions? I can hazard a guess. Pakistan is currently led by criminals and liars; the president is the most corrupt in its history. He does not even have a façade to show how he became a billionaire. Lest you think corruption cases against him were fabricated, remember that they were taking place not just in Pakistan but in Europe as well, where the judiciary is more robust. The leadership wants to keep people ignorant about this. Hence the clampdown on cyberspace.

The honourable Prime Minister (or not so?) has his own reasons for cyber-bitterness. To find out, type Prime Minister of Pakistan and Sherry Rehman in YouTube and watch the esteemed PMs hands carefully! The fate of the nation lies in the selfsame hands! He protests and yet he protests not, if you know what I mean.

(Alternatively, just click here)

Welfare reform...missed opportunities

The Queen's speech on Thursday is likely to contain proposals for significant changes to the way unemployment benefits are paid, with a greater emphasis on using the stick, such as withdrawing benefits from those who refuse to cooperate with efforts to get them back to work. This is always a delicate issue, with on the one hand a populist desire to get 'scroungers' off benefits and the need to ensure people are not punished and left to suffer. One target is likely to be single parents.

Yet I find it strange that these measures are being considered during a recession, when the recently unemployed will be competing with the long-term and hard core jobless. I think the opportunity to make permanent structural changes to welfare have been missed. We have just come out of a very long boom, which included an abundance of jobs. That was the time to encourage the hardcore jobless back to work. Instead what happened was that most of the extra jobs were filled by those coming from abroad, which in turn helped to inflate the housing boom, thereby making it even more difficult for the jobless to join the property ladder and entrenching poverty and dependence further.

Now that we are in a recession, many of the (more scrupulous) private companies who are bidding for contracts to help people find work are beggining to have second thoughts about the contractual targets. Unless there is a quick, miraculous change of economic conditions, we could have another fiasco similar to the Individual Learning Accounts one.

Bare below the elbows...

The NHS' “Bare Below the Elbows” policy requires that to prevent the spread of infections, health workers should not wear watches, rings (other than wedding rings) and should be bare below the elbows. This is based on research showing that bacteria can survive on sleeves and from there spread to patients on contact. Some Muslim female health workers, and 'community' leaders, have raised concerns about this policy.

A number of options are being discussed, including sleeves that can be easily rolled up on patient contact. My own view is that Islam is sufficiently flexible to take account of necessity. If there is scientific evidence for the survival of bacteria on sleeves, and transmission from there to patients, then out of necessity, there should be no obstacle to women health workers being bare below the arms.

Dependency culture...?

I enjoy studying the welfare state. It is a fascinating topic. This is because, although the details are boring and technical, underlying the welfare state are principles of compassion and humanity. Another reason for my interest is that, as so frequently happens, there is a conflict between the stated, noble, intentions and operation in reality.

Every area of the welfare state has examples of this dichotomy between reality and intention. Take child protection. We condemn the welfare state as a meddling nanny when happy families are broken; we condemn it for not doing enough when tragedies, such as the case of Baby P, happen. Yet we accept the principle that the state should have a role in helping vulnerable children.

There is, in other aspects of the welfare state, a conflict between the wish to help and the need to prevent making people dependent on state help. Take the case of financial help given to the unemployed. A perpetual challenge has been how to help those who need it, without, especially for those lacking skills, making people think hard and fast before accepting jobs that would make them only marginally better off ( or not better off at all, or, taking everything into account, worse off).

If the state is contributing significantly towards your mortgage payments, and you are not a skilled professional, you will think hard before accepting a job that could make you worse off. It is natural to make such calculations; it is totally unreasonable for there to be an expectation not to think in this way. Similarly, there is a huge disincentive to taking on short term contract work.

I am not sure what the solution is to these problems. Means testing, or targeting help to those who need it most, sounds great in principle, but for it to work, we all need to be saints.

BNP member list

This week saw considerable controversey about the release of the personal details of BNP members. Some people could hardly contain their glee, arguing that members of other parties do not hide themselves. Others argued that BNP members have rights too. Although Labour or Tory members do not need to hide, there would be an outcry if their personal details were published online. I agree with the latter view.

The list itself, easily available, contains 12801 entries. I am sure there must be social scientists somewhere analysing the data, though there isn't much to go on, apart from personal details. I suppose it does help in identifying the national distribution of members.

Of the 12801 entries, roughly 2400 are female (18.7%). 40 have the title of Dr before their names; 5 are reverends. There are even afew lords, ladies and knights, though I do not know if these titles are geniune. My own city, Birmingham, has around 220 members, including some who are from predominantly Pakistani/ Asian areas. Most of the members are from what could be called deprived areas, though there are several from more affluent areas.

Film news.....from Mirpur

Those who watch satellite channels of the DM Digital, KBC and Aapna TV sort, will know of a new genre of film and drama coming from Pakistan. I am referring, of course, to Potahari/ Pahari entertainment. The Potahar region of Pakistan is in fact a cultural entity that includes the Mirpur district of Azad Kashmir.

Now I hear that a new Pahari amateur film has as its leading actors at least 4 people from my own village, Chattroh. The film, Mara Sajan Pola (My naïve lover), is currently making the rounds in England. As a first amateur attempt, it’s actually an extraordinarily good film, well shot, the story moves quickly and there is a good dose of unique comedy.

Potahari/ Pahari films and dramas, helped by the rise of niche satellite channels, are increasingly becoming popular. Given the resemblance of Urdu and Hindi, Lollywood’s Urdu outputs do not stand a chance next to Bollywood. And Lollywood’s punjabi films are ridiculous, with every sentence delivered in earth shattering tones. The gap thus left is filled by Potohari films, which are in general more realistic and touch relevant themes, including the Pakistan/ England link.

The 'government' of 'Azad'Kashmir should take note and offer a cultural policy. It is clear young people want this; note how popular Bollywood movies, despite being banned, are in AK. I doubt, however, if anything will change. Culture does not go beyond recital of the quami-tarana and afew poems by Iqbal. The private sector is taking the initiative.

Good times on credit

It has become something of a statement of the obvious to say that over the past decade or so the material standard of life has increased by leaps and bounds. For example, ownership of material possessions, such as mobile phones, ipods, etc, has increased tremendously. That much cannot be denied.

But looking at it now, after the credit crunch, it seems all this prosperity has been achieved not by high paying, quality jobs, but on credit. Unprecendented levels of consumer credit, which have become clear since the crunch, are evidence of this.

With quality jobs shifting to low wage economies and being replaced by McJobs, it seems permanently low interest rates have been one way for the Western governments to ensure living standards do not fall for their citizens.

Holy Punches!

Those who saw the news last night would have seen images of Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks trading punches at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Old Jerusalem. The scenes brought to mind an incident, in which two mullahs exchanged slaps, I witnessed in the late 80s.

The point at issue was the vexed question of whether fasting should start the next day or not. As many people know, this is a difficult issue because it depends on the sighting of the new, thin crescent moon. The fact that the date of the new moon can now be scientifically calculated seems irrelevant, as does the fact that the new moon may have been sighted in other countries.

Anyway, this brawl that I remember started when one of the clerics rather naively suggested that the mosque just follow the decision of the majority. The other cleric was having none of this pragmatism. And so slaps ensued.

I am unable to empathise with those who take part in these petty disputes. What drives them? I just cannot get into their mind to see what is behind it. Take the issue of the sighting of the moon. Clerics in the UK are willing to say their prayers at precise times, such as 5:33 or 7:47. Where does this precision come from? It does so from the Met Office. Yet why not rely on the Met Office for the sighting of the new moon? What, in principle, is the difference between the two?

The former Pakistani Prime Minister, Z A Bhutto, talking about the mullahs once said “I have no time for those who argue as to which nostril to clean first”. That is one statement with which, in this day and age, one can easily empathise.

False hope....

Medical experts, backed by the charity Sense About Science, have expressed concern about the safety and efficacy of many web based remedies being offered to people who are unwell and suffering. In most cases, they just offer false hope at great cost.

I am similarly concerned about some of the adverts I have seen in the free Urdu newspapers, which offer, not just medical advice, but a solution to all of life’s problems. One spiritual healer claims to solve any problem, from impotency to recalcitrant children. Another promises that your stubborn sweetheart will fall at your feet after a (costly) visit.

These can be dismissed as entertainment, but some make more serious claims, such as to cure chronic conditions, such as diabetes, or even life threatening diseases such as cancer. Recent years have seen a proliferation of these free newspapers, which contain little original news (just poor quality re-wording of news from more established sources), and many adverts. The problem is that these newspapers are read by the most vulnerable - older Asian men who have little understanding of other sources of information to confirm or disconfirm what they read.

Marriage.......

The marriage arrangements of British Mirpuris are changing drastically and quite rapidly. Young people - boys and girls- are demanding a greater say in the choice of partner. In many cases, parents merely rubber stamp the decision taken by their son or daughter. This is, in general, a positive development. It is only right that those who will have to spend their lives together should be able to choose who they will do so with.

Another way in which marriage is changing among Mirpuris is that young people are increasingly less likely to stick around in loveless marriages, as witnessed by rising rates of divorce and marital disharmony. In a sense, Mirpuris are becoming mainstream, where rates of divorce are already high (though they have fallen recently).

Is it a positive development that many Mirpuri youngsters, unlike their parents and definitely grandparents, are no longer willing to stick around in loveless marriages? That is a difficult question; in general if children are involved, my view is that people should make an extra effort to stick. In other cases it is more difficult. Whatever the answer, utmost care and attention is required in selecting marriage partners.

Line of Control...

The Line of Control that separates Indian and Pakistani Kashmir was opened to traders this week. News reports showed the 'Prime Minister' of Pakistani Kashmir releasing a bird in the direction of Indian Kashmir, which promptly flew back. Whether it was meant to be a symbol of peace, or freedom on this side in contrast to the Indian side, or both, I do not know.

If Kashmiris from the two halves start visiting each other more, they will start to compare. It is natural to compare. What will Kashmiris from one side make of the other?

Those from the Indian side visiting Pakistani Kashmir may, initially, be struck by the large palatial buildings, particularly in the Mirpur district. The more perceptive will soon realise that these are most definitely not the symbol of prosperity overseen by Pakistan. They will realise that most of these impressive buildings are empty and their owners living in cramped terraces in the UK.

Beneath this superficial veneer, they will see a decrepit infrastructure, roads in a state of disrepair, poor quality healthcare, a state education system that has collapsed (note the popularity of private education) and bickering over relatively minor things.

Indian Kashmiri visitors may well also note the bickering over the short Dhangali Bridge, which, in the greater scheme of things, should be relatively easy for Pakistan to construct. They may well contrast this, unfavourably, with the recent launch of the rail link between Delhi and the Indian Kashmir. While we bicker over a puny bridge, they have a rail service!

Back to blogging....

I have been away for many months from blogsphere as there is no point writing when the words will not out. To write effectively requires inspiration and passion; else there is no point, unless you write for a living, where it is deemed fine to concoct artificial sentences.

Anyway, I hope to write a blog regularly now, at least one per week to begin with.

To kick off, a word about two issues. First the banking crisis. I began blogging in 2004 partly in response to the financial bubble, particularly as it affects housing. Now the chickens have come home to roost. The impact of what we are witnessing should not be underestimated. A massive paradigm change is taking place. RIP neoliberal economics; interventionism is back in. If the banks can be rescued, many other industries will be wondering why not them.

The second important change since I last blogged is the fact that Zardari is now the president of Pakistan. That the most corrupt person in the history of Pakistan, and someone who would no doubt get a front seat in an international contest of corrupt politicians, should become president is a tragedy and does not bode well for the future of the country. This man combines corruption and incompetence. Faced with court cases, he claimed to suffer from several mental ailments. Either he lied or he didn't. Either way, he is not fit to be president. Alas the sycophants who tail him do not realise this, or refuse to accept it.

Education

To roughly translate and apply a Mirpuri proverb, these days if you pick up a stone the chances are that there will be a degree lying under it. The widening participation agenda has done more than widen access to higher education. In the process, the content has been dumbed down. So much I was able to glean from the pages of the Times Higher while I was working at a leading University. There was scarcely an issue that didn’t contain academic moans about declining standards.

Given this, the arrogance displayed by some Mirpuri parents when talking about their graduate children is totally misplaced. Of course, there are some very high achievers, both academically and in careers. For these, actions speak louder than words: their self evident position makes unnecessary any overt arrogance. In general, however, going to a University (normally a post-92 one; i.e. an ex-Poly) is no big deal. You don’t even need decent A, level grades to do so. No wonder academics complain about students who can’t spell or construct a half decent paragraph.

Benazir and Pakistan

Pakistanis are still in a state of shock less than a week since the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto (BB). The assassination, on 27 December, came at the end of bad year for Pakistan. Even the arguably good news, like the growth rate and economy, has a negative driver: the dollars coming in as part of the US war against terrorism package.

There's no shortage of material to read about the assassination and its aftermath, on the net and elsewhere. So here's some brief points to add to the mix.

First, the government, as on other matters, is suffering from a massive credibility gap. Its version of how BB died, and who may have killed her, is believed by very few. Political murders are rarely solved in Pakistan. We still don't know why the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaqat Ali Khan- after whom the park where BB died was named- was killed. Neither do we know much about why Zia was killed. There's plenty of speculation. We will probably never know who killed BB.

Second, the People's Party has harmed its democratic credentials by keeping the reins of power in the party within the Bhutto family. There are plenty of able people in the party (e.g. Aitzaz Hassan, the lawyer who caused much headache for the government in 2007).

Third, the current 'caretaker' government has been wrong to postpone the general election. This is clearly a political decision taken in view of Musharaff's declining popularity. It is also to minimise the chances of the People's Party capitlising on the sympathy vote.

Changing nature of work

Once upon a time, work was about making things or doing things with others. You made loo rolls, cars, pens, clothes and stilettos. Or you did something to someone: you took their money and saved it in your bank, you gave it back to them when they wanted it. You examined them and gave them medicine or a bandage. And so on in a number of other occupations…
Now doing useful things like this has become tangential. Those who make things are now based in the faraway abroad, like India and China. True, we still do things to others, like treat their halitosis and take money from them (though not give it them, as the card now does that). We also do a lot things of questionable value to others, like give them nail jobs and enhance their body parts.

But the main way in which work has changed is that a lot it is done for it’s own sake, with no obvious end in sight, even a superfluous one like a nail job. How many people now spend their whole working day gawping at a PC screen, writing memos, sharing email funnies and having endless cups of coffee. Even if they are conscientious workers and forgo the coffees and personal emails and web surfing, the substance of what they do serves no clear purpose.

Not surprisingly, jobs of this sort are not very secure. Whereas manufacturing jobs are being shifted overseas, the vulnerability of the non-jobs I am talking about is to constant change and restructuring. For the workers, the survival strategy is to be adaptable and take on a new opportunity arising from the restructure or to move out, often to another non-job. Those who become wedded, for too long, to particular ways of doing things do not last long. To succeed, you must be able to condemn your past and jump onto the latest fad.

Situation in Pakistan

How’s this for a crime reduction strategy: lock up the potential victims? If the victims are safely in jail, no harm can come to them. That seems to be the perverse logic of the stated reason for the declaration of emergency in Pakistan. For if the fight against terrorism is the main reason, then what other logic is there to locking up secular and left leaning politicians, lawyers and community workers? Religious fundamentalists detest such people. Imran Khan was actually handed over to the authorities by the student wing of the fundamentalist Jamat-e-Islami. So much for enlightened moderation, or Musharaff’s roshan khayali.

We all know, of course, that Musharaff is following the logic of all dictators, especially Pakistani ones. That is the quest to remain in power at all costs, presented as being in the interests of the nation. The nation will disintegrate if the dictator does not remain in power. So the biggest obstacles to this, the courts and secular leaders, need to be removed. The fundamentalists, on the other hand, can be useful, for the dictator can say to his masters, the US: “look what you’ll get more of if I am not around.” Last time it was in the national interest that the dictator remains in power we had Zia, keeping the commies at bay. All the current problems were the result.

Many commentators have likened the situation in Pakistan to Iran just prior to the fall of the Shah. That analogy is probably not wrong. Musharaff is extremely unpopular at the moment- which probably accounts for why Benazir, having had corruption charges dropped, is hardening her stance against the government and sounding out to other opposition parties. No body wants to be seen shoring up a dictator when the whole of society is in revolt.

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.

Depression

Depression, we are told by the World Health Organisation, is more disabling than angina, arthritis, asthma and diabetes. This may sound counter to what most people think, but it does raise the question, what is depression and what makes it a distinct illness? There is no shortage of definitions of depression. Extreme form of sadness is central to all.

I think three points need to be borne in mind in any discussion about depression.

First, it is an illness that has only relatively recently entered common parlance. I have a lucid memory stretching back to the late 1970s. Yet I do not recall common discussion of depression then. Now, over two decades later, it is discussed even in the villages of India and Pakistan. What has happened? Has depression increased, or have people found a single word to describe what were previously considered disparate symptoms, such as headaches, anxiety and sadness?

Second, depression has become a convenient and acceptable word to mask serious mental illness. What I mean is this: in some cases, what the person is suffering from is not depression, but a serious psychotic illness that affects the thought process. In other words, it is more respectable to admit to depression than to losing touch with reality.

Third, where the intense sadness is related to extreme life events, for example bereavement, loss of job and loss of house all occurring at once, can that be regarded as illness? Is it not normal to have extreme reactions to extreme events? In some cases, then ‘depression’ is not an illness but a reaction to life events. It is important to know this, because the solution lies in tackling the problems, not in taking tablets or making the person feel better when objectively their life situation has little to make them feel good about.

So I would say the medical term depression should be reserved for cases where extreme sadness is not based on life events or is totally out of proportion to any problems and where the thought process remains intact.

Vartan-bhanji

My English friends are fascinated by the concept of vartan-bhanji, the custom of reciprocated gift giving. Although they engage in gift giving and receiving with close family- brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, nephews, nieces etc- they are surprised to learn that the vartan-bhanji extends to those people from the extended family with whom you have only a very tenuous link. They are also surprised by the occasions which prompt the need to make a gift to comparatively distant relatives: marriage, the birth of a son, the arrival of someone from Pakistan and weddings (and the various customs that, over an extended period of time, take place during a wedding).

Vartan-bhanji is more than just gift giving. It is a formal process that cements extended family relations. To not engage in vartan-bhanji, or not to reciprocate a previously received gift when the occasion demands, is to express displeasure at the other person and to sever links with them. And these are noticed by others. At weddings, for example, people will notice if a certain family is not present and will enquire about the reason.

Like many other customs, vartan-bhanji is also coming under a strain in the cut and thrust of urban UK living, where extended families can often be separated by hundreds of miles. As a result, the occasions that prompt the need to make a gift are gradually contracting.

“Porcupines in winter”

“Porcupines in winter”, published by the Young Foundation, is an interesting collection of short essays that sketch out the state of the relationships that characterise contemporary British life and society. There are portraits of places and of relationships between people. It rewards reading- even if you are not an avid reader. The essays are very short.

‘Porcupines in winter’ is also an apt metaphor for the state of us British Mirpuris. For porcupines are those prickly creatures. In winter, when they huddle together too close, they begin to prickle each other and therefore have to ease off a little. Then, feeling the cold, they huddle together yet more, until they prickle each other again. It is a constant struggle to find a happy medium between stifling closeness and being totally isolated.

'Law-abiding majority' myth

A study by Keele University found that over 60% of people admit to committing ‘minor’ offences, either against the government, their employers or against businesses. This includes things like pilfering things from work, lying on forms or exaggerating insurance claims. I don’t find these findings in the least surprising and I suspect neither does anyone else. The ‘law-abiding majority’ is a myth that politicians, particularly in democratic countries, have to sustain. After all, would you vote for a politician who called you a crook? Vote me you crooks!

Reserved parking spaces

On a short residential street, I recently counted 25 disabled parking spaces marked outside houses. There could not have been much more than 200 houses in total on the street. The street is in an area where parking is in general a huge problem because of shoppers visiting the adjacent high street (and it’s a popular shopping area with people coming from all over England) and because in general the families living on this and similar streets are large, with often 2 or 3 cars per household.

You’ve probably guessed what I am trying to get at. If you extrapolate the 25 spaces to a national level that would mean well over 10% of the population has some form of mobility disability, which does not sound credible. People are, in other words, creatively using disability rules and regulations to get over parking problems. Often there is some form of legally defined disability in the household, but its mobility implications are exaggerated or made up. In some cases, I have seen households given disabled parking spaces even though there is no one in the household with a visible disability.

Being given a reserved parking space outside your house is a form of welfare, and like other elements of welfare it invites abuse. Cash benefits, for example, invite the vice of sloth, by making you think twice before accepting a job that would make you a mere £20 a week better off. They invite lies by making you under-declare income and savings or, the flipside of this, they discourage frugality lest any savings affect your benefit entitlements. So the right to a reserved parking space outside your house encourages people to exaggerate minor problems, or make them up altogether, and to redefine themselves or family members as disabled.

Hypocrisy

I reckon hypocrisy must be the worst vice there is. It is so because when you witness too much of it, it makes you lose faith. How are you to feel when people who claim to be straight forward, whiter than whiter, end up telling lies about anything and everything? How should we feel when men (it is mostly men) of spirituality are found to have been involved in illicit sexual liaisons? The one can affect your faith in democracy and the other your faith in religion.

It is, however, hypocrisy closer to our own community- among British Pakistanis and Mirpuris- that I want to dwell on. It is in evidence everywhere. During the course of one weekend, I saw many instances of it.

We never tire of preaching 'sabr', or patience. It has a high status as a virtue. But alas our actions belie it. Every day I see people from our community, adults as well as youngsters, bearded as well clean shaven, who cannot wait patiently in a queue. They either just brazenly walk to the front, or absent-mindedly pretend they cannot work out where the queue begins. They are rarely challenged.

I don't know what proportion of faith patience constitutes, but it is well known that cleanliness is half of our faith. So how do we fare on that count? Our streets are the dirtiest. I see not only youngsters, high on the fire of youth, littering, but even mature people making their rubbish the problem of society. Every morning, when I leave for work, the cleaner is busy cleaning the streets. When I get back in the evening, it is as if he might as well not have bothered.

But surely, given our puritanical outlook, we are more reserved when it comes to anything to do with sex? Yet even here facts belie theory. Walk along any local high street in one of these areas and note how the young guys- and some times not so young- eye up and stare at the ladies with lascivious intent.

Blogging

I've been absent from blogosphere for a few months. Some research recently suggested that the average blog lasts around 8 months, before the enthusiasm of the writer dies down. I think I've done well by that standard, having started in 2004. Nevertheless, I hope to be able to start again in the next few days.

Politics of fear

On Sunday, I bumped into George Galloway on the Stratford Road. Yesterday evening, the door bell rang and who should be there but the local Labour MP. He is clearly startled by the reception Galloway receives, as well as by the near miss of 2005, when his huge majority was nearly overturned by the Respect candidate.

What I find bizarre is that the canvassers did not introduce themselves as Labour, but gave the impression that they were campaigning against a local sore point, the building of the new, PFI mental health facility just down the road. The local area has around 2000 mental health service users, around 200 of whom require some residential treatment during the year. The new hospital will have a 20 bed facility.

While the MP was talking with someone else, the labour party foot soldier accompanying the MP claimed it would be a secure mental health facility. I was insistent it would not, as I had read about the project in the local mental trust’s annual report. On this point the foot soldier was contradicted by the MP, who admitted it would not be a secure unit. It dawned on me that the Labour campaigners were using scare tactics to win votes and that many people, out of fear, would believe them.

With that cleared, the MP shook my hand and walked away. I told the local campaigner I would not vote Labour, because of the war and because the local MP was not pro-active, hardly spoke in Parliament and certainly did not represent the views of his constituents. To this the local campaigner replied, sotto voce, ‘We’ll get rid of him next time’.

Local election fever time....

It’s local election fever again in Birmingham. In areas with a large number of Pakistanis, there is evidence aplenty: from door-to-door campaigners to posters in windows. In other areas, you wouldn’t get so much as a cryptic clue that an election is looming.

Yesterday, the penultimate Sunday before the election, saw some feverish campaigning by most of the parties, in particular Galloway’s Respect and the local People’s Justice Party (the latter comprising mainly of retired/ nigh-retired Pakistani men who have failed to make headway in other parties). Galloway was himself out campaigning. As I strolled out for my Sunday walk along the Stratford Rd, who should I bump into but the intrepid Galloway himself, hugging everyone in sight (yes, even I got a hug).

A sizeable crowd gathered outside a hardware store, so a mic was thrust into Galloway’s hand to make an impromptu address. In his strong, macho accent, he asked people to vote Respect and throw out the Labour donkeys (he made a braying sound, on which there was thunderous laughter among the Pakistani ladies who probably didn’t understand what he was saying). He talked about local problems, from parking to crime and rats. Not able to resist a political jibe, he said we need to get rid of the two-legged variety of the latter as well. Standing next to him was Salma Yaqoob, the articulate young councillor who, in the 2005 general election, very nearly unseated a Labour MP who had a majority of Himalayan proportions. Galloway clearly has an eye on the parliamentary seat- hence the grassroots support building visit.

Elsewhere, I don’t think this will be a disaster for Labour in the Springfield and Sparkbrook wards. That is not because people love Blair- in fact even Labour voters hate him intensely. Rather, there is the phenomena of ‘biradriasm’ (clan identity) at play. Labour candidates hail from the same part of Mirpur, and belong to the same caste as, a large number of the voters in the area. For many people I have spoken to, that counts as more. They are keen to stress this and utter an expletive directed at the national Labour party in the same breath.

Curiously, I didn’t see any posters in windows in Small Heath, even though there was plenty of campaigning going on. My guess is that people are scared- there was a mini-riot at an election some years ago and people are afraid of having there windows done in. Who said the public is disillusioned and disengaged?

Experts

Aren't the beaming tele-experts who comment on the plight of the 15 sailors captured by Iran irritating? They analyse and comment on every movement, every mannerism, every word of the captives and then inform us that they are quite clearly stressed, unhappy and making statements under duress. What wisdom. We were ignorant before the experts told us all this; we thought they were just having a laugh. For sharing these pearls, the experts are no doubt handsomely rewarded.

On a more serious note, there is no such commentary by the tele-genic types on the plight of those in Western custody, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo or elswhere. Those who do raise concerns about them can be dismissed as bleeding hearts.

The problem with the public sector is…

There are a number of issues. First comes indecision and lack of urgency about anything. Projects run on for ever; no one knows how they are going. Meanwhile, we spend money, time and effort duplicating whatever the project is trying to achieve. Sometimes there are similar projects, running at the same time, uncoordinated and pulling in different directions.

Another malady is change for change’s sake, often packaged and sold as a brand spanking new approach to doing things that will revolutionise work practices. In reality it is nothing of the sort. Bureaucrats and quangocrats get bored easily with doing the same thing over and again. So they make a ‘business case’ for a new way of doing things. After many meetings, train journeys and lunches, the new way is approved and those lower down the order are rescued from ennui for another year by the order to start implementing the new way.

But then a problem arises. The higher ups, having written, discussed and approved the new way of doing things, begin to feel bored just sitting there monitoring the lower downs. Some of them move onto newer pastures, which are ripe for new ‘initiatives.’ Others stay and come up with more new ways of doing things; and so the bureaucratic merry-go-round of initiatives continues. If it ain’t broke, fix it any way!

Then there is the empire building and backyard protecting. Quangocrats forget that they are publicly funded, with a moral duty, if not always a clear legal one, to the taxpayers. If something can be done more efficiently if delivered centrally (e.g. a software package to automate administration), why argue against it? We have to be careful here. Often there is no direct arguing against. Instead, there are vague distinctions made to show how we are different, how the solution being offered centrally will not meet our needs. The sky will fall in if a central solution is imposed.

Crowning all this is the perpetual existential threat, particularly to Quangos. They make easy picking when HM Opposition is shouting waste and bureaucracy. When there is a problem, create a quango to deal with it; when bloated bureaucracy is the problem, chop the quango. Politicians win both ways.

All this arises, I think, because much of the daily work of bureaucrats and quangocrats lacks a convincing raison de etre. Doctors and nurses tend the sick, teachers impart knowledge and firemen extinguish fires. Factory workers make things that are sold. There is dignity and gratification in that. Quangocrats don’t do anything that makes one jot of a difference to people. Some work extremely hard, travel the length and breadth of the country and develop vast networks (always useful when turbulence strikes). But to most people, they make no difference.

The educational divide

As of 15 January of this year, 221,523 females had applied for full-time university undergraduate courses, as against 173,784 males. We do not yet know how many of these have been accepted on the courses, but for the purposes of this blog I want to assume that the male-female ratio will remain the same. The trend of recent years is certainly a growing gulf between the number of male and female applicants.

What does this mean? It means the future is feminine:

• On the assumption that graduates earn more than non-graduates, the divide between the rich and the poor, between the well off and the less well off, could in future reflect a sex divide.
• If intellectual compatibility and equality is necessary for a happy marriage, then women could be short of suitable partners to marry. Similarly, if people in general marry from the same social class as themselves, then the sex-cum-class divide described above will further restrict the choice of marriage partners. Settling down mellows people; with all those unmarried and unattached men, there will be a lot unchecked testosterone around, which could quite easily channel into other areas, like crime, alcohol, drugs and even terrorism.
• More women will come to occupy positions of influence. Will that mean that what have traditionally been regarded as feminine values- such as receptiveness, warmth, understanding, collegiality, cooperation, ‘motherliness’- become the dominant values in society? If so, the problem above about unchecked testosterone can be avoided.
• I wonder what will happen to the birth rate and population level. Will more and more women come to delay or postpone starting families, as they progress with their careers?

State of language

In a refreshing change from the text-speak led attrition of language, the nation’s vocabulary has increased by one in recent days. ‘Mastication for the nation’ is the catchline of an advert for a new chewing gum. It is another thing, of course, that the nation’s vocabulary should increase as a result of such trivial activity as munching on chewing gum. Surely the nation has better things to do and learn from?

The point of my blog today is to bemoan the state of language. Two things have happened to language. First, any hint of using posh or long words is shunned, on grounds of arrogance, snobbery or inaccessibility. This is related to the general trend of the decline of learning for learning’s sake, and its replacement with such instrumentalism as widening participation (in itself a good thing), ‘bite-sized learning’, the dominance of easy, marketing speak-words over heavy text ones and the general preference for imagery, where words play only a supporting role. Yet life is complex: only a rich variety of words can capture the nuances of life. There is also a complex relationship between words and thoughts: it’s not a one way process of thoughts issuing in words. The ready availability of words helps to shape thoughts.

Another modern phenomenon is the rise of pre-packaged words. Indeed, there are templates for communicating anything: you just fill in the blanks. Related to this is the consultant-speak pap that keeps reappearing in different forms: enhance, diversity, ‘going forward’, value-added, knowledge management, customers (to describe taxpayers and students), etc.

Happiness

We tend in general to experience pain and discomfort more than their opposites, intense, orgasmic pleasure, that pervades everything in our being. Whether derived from sexual fusion or some other pleasure enhancing intervention, such experiences are inevitably short lived. On the other hand, the sense of general happiness of circumstances, where life, family, career, etc, are in equilibrium, is very often not on the surface and requires some reflection to bring it out.

So what does this mean? It means we become used to an easy existence and take it for granted. Our threshold for enduring minor inconveniences is thereby lowered. That, primarily, for me explains why a huge increase in living standards has not translated into an equally huge increase in happiness. It never will- we adapt.

One reason why we are not happy is because we compare ourselves to others who are better off, financially or in other ways, than us. Once we have achieved what those others have, we begin to compare ourselves to yet others who have yet more. We may start off by comparing our situation with the person down the road who lives in a semi-detached and has a two-year old car, as against our terraced and jalopy. We begin to earn more and move to a semi and buy a better car, but then another person down the road has a sports car and lives in a detached house. And so on it continues- a constant state of anxiety and restlessness.

Dress and liberty

There has been a lot of talk about how we Muslims dress. Perhaps we are being loosened up for some legislative intervention. Perhaps wearing the veil will be banned in education and, in the long term, in other public buildings. Perhaps it will also be banned while driving, on the health and safety pretext that it can interfere with the peripheral vision. We will just have to wait and see- by turning up the heat in the debate, perhaps some people hope that they will be able to influence behaviour and avoid the need for intervention.

I know at least 3 people who changed how they dressed after July 2005. A number of others altered their sartorial preference after Straw’s anti-veil outburst last year. The debate has focussed on the veil, but many men have also donned their shirts and trousers and discreetly retired their shalwar kameez suits. Some have also trimmed their beards; others, torn between cultures, are trimming their beards in stages, so that eventually it will cease to exist, by which time they hope no one will notice.

All this is a far cry from the case for liberty presented in John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. Mill argued that the only reason society should intervene in regulating behaviour is to prevent ‘harm’ to others. Over their own bodies, individuals are sovereign. As long as the harm to others principle is borne in mind, people could be as eccentric and offbeat as they wished. In fact, Mill argues, eccentricity is a good thing. A vibrantly liberal society depends on such difference.

Now Mill’s essay is elegant and powerful. But the word ‘harm’ is slippery It can be applied to whatever you like. Politicians can argue that the shalwar kameez, or the veil, ‘harms’ integration (just as in some traditional societies conservatives argue that westernisation harms society). Anything that goes against your idea of how society should be organised can be regarded as ‘harmful’. Yet the whole idea of liberty is to keep the concept of harm limited. If harm is continuously expanded- for example to include how you dress- then liberty becomes an empty phrase. It no longer becomes the default position, but whatever can be saved from the ever expanding domain of regulation. For Mill, liberty was definitely a default position.

Law and psychology: creating needs

Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show that after law, psychology is the most popular subject. As of 15 January, 77,040 people had applied to study psychology later in the year- an increase of 3.9% from last year. Perhaps that explains why we are becoming an increasingly litigious and therapeutic society. The lawyers and psychologist coming from the universities need something to do.

There is more than a modicum of truth in this apparently simplistic link. Two examples will suffice to show what I mean.

An acquaintance was recently stopped in the street by a clever ‘personal injury claims’ salesman from a law firm. My acquaintance has never had an industrial accident, but, after a long discussion, was persuaded by the salesman to attend a private medical examination. The examination would test things like hearing, sight, agility etc. If anything was found lacking, an attempt would be made to link the deficit with the various jobs this person had done in his life by putting in a personal injury claim. My acquaintance cancelled the appointment, but you can see my point- lawyers putting in dubious claims to create work and money for themselves.

The second example is less dramatic, but real enough. In every job I have started, the induction has included a bit about the availability of counselling. This may sound innocuous enough, but the omnipresence of counselling does suggest that, by default, we are now being considered as weak and unable to cope. After all, the induction said nothing about the local cancer specialist.

Integration and language

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion has rightly identified lack of language as the single biggest barrier to integration. It is easy to see why this is the case- not being able to speak the language of your host country is an obvious disadvantage. Your career prospects are limited. In many cases, you become permanently locked into low paid jobs and you are less aware of your rights. Integration is further hampered because your colleagues are unlikely to speak English as well. You have minimum contact with the majority community.

So it is perfectly reasonable that migrants, whether here for work or to join a spouse, should be required to learn English. That means quality courses in English should be provided free of charge and at flexible times to cater for working patterns. Migrants should commit to learning the language. The government’s side of the bargain should be to provide quality learning and training.

To be frank, things have been a little too easy for migrants for too long. The easy availability of translation has removed any motivation to learn English. Yet the problem with translation is that although it gets you through a particular transaction, in the longer term it does not help your position in the host country. Many public sector organisations have been particularly over-zealous in their approach to translation, making available a large number of leaflets and documents in various languages. It is a concrete indicator of the duty to be ‘inclusive’. At the end of the year, when reporting on the performance indicators relating to inclusion, organisations can count the minority language leaflets and pat themselves on the back. This misguided approach to inclusion actually perpetuates exclusion.

Dumbing down

For some years a change has been going on in education at all levels. Universities, traditionally centres of learning and intrepid scholarship, fiercely independent, are at the forefront of this change. The change involves emphasising process of learning over substance. It involves different pedagogies and learning styles. E-learning, portfolios, student-centred learning, problem-based learning, collaborative learning: these are just some of the words in the vast lexicon of learning processes. A recent addition is ‘sustainability literacy’, which looks at how concern about the environment can be incorporated into your discipline.

What is the driving force behind this obsession with teaching process over substance? There are several reasons, but I think the main force is the wish to be inclusive. Sitting in a library studying bulky tomes and writing essays is considered elitist and old fashioned. So in an attempt to open up, new learning processes are introduced that are less taxing, like e-learning, with its drag and drop and copy paste exercises; or portfolio-based learning, with its emphasis on crediting prior experience and knowledge. By thus opening up with bite-sized learning, all can have prizes. But it comes at the expense of intellectual rigour.

Generation gap

A report recently claimed that young Muslims, born and bred in the UK, are being more radicalised than the older generation, some of whom barely speak English. I think this makes sense; the experiences of the different generations are different.

The elders, especially those in their 70s, arrived in the UK when they were teenagers or older. They therefore still have memories of what life was like in Pakistan, or Mirpur, before large numbers of people started coming to the UK. And the memories they have are not all pleasant. Many elders recall the extreme poverty. Extreme poverty, as distinct from relative poverty, is where you do not have enough food to eat. It is where what you do have to eat is very basic. Many people recall the days when all they had to eat were corn chapattis and water. Meat was a luxury.

For people of that generation, arriving in the UK has been a life changer for which they thank their lucky stars. Here there were plenty of jobs and a good wage. And frankly, if you fall on hard times, the state looks after you anyway. What harm could a few racist taunts do compared to the hardships and struggles of existence left behind in the motherland, for which they still have an affection?

The experiences of the generation born here are different. They have not suffered extreme poverty. They do not know what it is like not to have enough to eat or to go bare foot to school. Their problems are problems of life here- poor educational attainment, ignorance, lack of job opportunities, drugs, crime and welfare dependency. It is this void in their lives which forms a breeding ground for extremism for a tiny minority, as it does for crime and anti-social behaviour in the wider community.

Therapy culture

As I browsed through the new books section at my local library recently, I was struck by the number that were about therapy and counselling. There were books about anxiety and stress, and about various phobias, including social phobia, otherwise known as shyness. There was a chunky hardback on how to be happy and contented. The library now has a large number of popular therapeutic books. What can be the reason for this? At the superficial level, the reason is that more such books are being written, therefore it makes sense that more are being bought.

There is, however, a cultural reason why more and more popular therapy books are being churned out. The prevailing culture encourages us to feel vulnerable and delicate, unable to cope with life without help and support. Even life’s everyday challenges are pathologised. Notice how fortitude and bravery are words very little heard these days. Even in the army, a profession that should represent the ne plus ultra of fortitude and bravery, we have Gulf war syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder.

Given this trend, it is not surprising that self therapeutic books have become so popular. I am not interested in the chicken and egg question, whether the books created the culture or the culture created the books. It’s fair to say that the more such books are written, the more the culture of vulnerability becomes entrenched. A quick search on Amazon and ebay confirms just how popular these books are.

A quick browse through several of the books at the library confirmed my prejudice- they are full of pap. Much of the advice is repetitive and commonsense dressed up as something better and original. There is no analytical or critical perspective of any sort. Books of this genre make no addition to accumulated knowledge. I suspect they do not make people happier either, as they fork out more money to buy the ‘Also available’ titles listed at the back, about a condition they were hitherto unaware they had.

Raids in Brum

My city and local area is abuzz with activity following yesterday’s anti-terror raids. All day, journalists, cameramen, politicians, police officers and curious members of the public could be seen along the Stratford Rd. By the time I got home from work, the only people around were the police in fluorescent jackets and the Newsnight team, with the intrepid Richard Watson presenting from outside a barber shop.

The two policemen guarding the mobile phone shop looked bored. A man passed by and asked them whether it will re-open, as he had given the shop a ‘very expensive’ handset for repairing. He was assured it would. Whereas the police had finished with the bookshop down the road when I went for a stroll in the evening, the policemen in fluorescent continued to guard the phone shop at 6:30 am when I drove by to work today.

It is difficult to gauge what local people think. People are clearly scared and concerned, but there is a hint of scepticism that anything will come out of this. Friends and relatives of some of those arrested have fiercely protested their innocence. We will just have to wait and see what comes out of it.

If no charges are brought and this turns out to be another Forest Gate, then, alas, I fear the media will not return with the same force and damage to the reputation of the area would have been done.

Are supermarkets good things?

It has become customary and clichéd to moan about the death of the bustling high street market at the hands of the supermarket behemoths. There is no doubt the quality of local life and community spirit does suffer if the local shops are all boarded up. Yet there is an element of elitism in the moans.

The reasons why people shop at supermarkets are simple: they offer value for money and variety of products. Many products they sell come in premium and cheaper own-brand versions. There is something for everyone. At the local shop, everything costs a lot more. The local shop does not have the same power of bulk buying and direct link with manufacturers. It cannot afford to have its own label stuck on things.

Problems at the Big Brother house

What is all this furore over Big Brother and the treatment of Shilpa, the Bollywood actress? Big Brother is a morally redundant and culturally banausic format. The realisation that this is the case is beginning to dawn on the viewing public. In the short term, the controversy has been like manna from heaven for the programme makers, because viewing figures have shot up. In the longer term, this could be the beginning of the end for BB in the UK.

Mirpuri ignorance

Today the Independent reports a depressing story of how a young bride, from Palak, Mirpur, was tortured to death by her British husband for, among other things, failing in her domestic duties. Palak is in fact within the Dadyal district, from which I also hail. So it’s a story that interests me.

As I read the Independent report, it became clear that the case bears all the hallmarks of ignorance and hypocrisy that blight our community and which I have discussed in previous blogs. There appears to be the hypocrisy and arrogance of a westernised family failing to understand and support a girl whose life had hitherto been spent in a village. As I have said on previous occasions, a little humility is in order from British Mirpuris. Then the there is the ignorance and philistinism of seeking the advice of a ‘holy man', who diagnosed 'problems' by looking at an item of the girl's clothing.

The horror of the case speaks for itself. I just want to say a word about relying on 'holy men'. This practice is common throughout South Asia for dealing with emotional and mental problems. Clearly cultivating spirituality has a role to play in helping to deal with these sorts of problems. However, in recent years things have gone too far- the spiritual element is in fact completely lacking, as money, power and fame take over and as the 'holy men' increasingly intrude into territory that should be the domain of professionals.

A number of satellite channels now invite these 'holy men', who you can call using a premium number. In one programme, a practice similar to the one described in the Independent story takes place. The 'holy man' asks the caller to measure an item of clothing of the person with a 'problem'. Then he recites something and blows at the camera. The caller is again asked to measure the item of clothing- a different diagnosis is offered depending on whether the item has shrunk or increased in size. Of course nothing of the sort has happened; but if you measure something in haste over the phone, using your fingers, you are bound to get different 'measurements' each time.

The point, however, is that rather than offering spiritual reassurance, these 'holy men' are offering diagnosis. That is clearly a wrong turn; in fact one that should possibly be investigated. Reliance on quacks means genuine diagnosis, and hence proper treatment, is delayed.

Myth of 'return' and 'expulsion'?

The myth of return among some immigrant communities, particularly Mirpuris, is now on the wane, as reality dawns that we are here to stay. This even as Mirpuris pour huge amounts of wealth into Mirpur, especially for constructing large residences with the Grecian pillars. Another, more ominous belief, discussed sotto voce by elders who arrived in the 40s and 50s and which has fluctuated over the years but was revived after 7/7, is that at some point we will be expelled.

It's a nasty thought that first took root after Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech and was commonly held in the days of National Front marches during the 1970s. It subsided somewhat during the 1980s, but has seen a resurgence recently in the days of 7/7, an upturn in BNP fortunes and the new wave of immigration during the late 90s and the first few years of this century.

So what is my own take on this view? Is it totally unreasonable? At one level it is; the culture of human rights is so deep in western Europe that it would be impossible to expel people. But that misses another point. If there is ever expulsion, it would be preceded by serious deterioration in the social and economic health of the country. Rising unemployment, precipitated by the drainage of jobs to low wage economies, could provide the spark for such instability. We are nowhere near that stage at the moment.

There have been reports that the BNP is ready to exploit the next recession as part of its electoral strategy. My fear is that it may also be helped by the current trend, whereby we are becoming an unequal economy, with a large number of people working in low-wage mc-jobs and a minority of super-rich people. Those in the middle are the most vulnerable to the drainage of jobs to low wage economies. Again, we are nowhere near reaching this point, but in the long term, this could provide a new pool of support for the likes of the BNP.

Execution of Saddam

What can be said about the execution of Saddam? So much has been written and much will be written. Here are just some random thoughts.

1. Whatever your view of Saddam, his last moments were, in the circumstances, dignified. He died with courage and fortitude. Others would have cracked. This contrasts with the attitude of his executors, whose appalling behaviour- reminiscent more of those who torment Western hostages than servants of the state carrying out due process- could have far reaching consequences. The tyrant has, in his last moments, won many admirers- which could make him more dangerous in death than he was in jail.
2. The hasty execution will strengthen sectarianism. Those who think that the execution will mark a new beginning for Iraq are clearly deluded. To Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere, this was an act of sectarian vengeance, not justice, made possible by the US. It will strengthen sectarianism and anti-Americanism.
3. Why wasn’t there a fuller enquiry into Saddam’s crimes? How about because it would have disinterred some uncomfortable truths about the days when relations with the US were cosier?
4. What message did the Iraqi government wish to send to Sunnis everywhere by executing him on the day they were celebrating Eid?
5. There is, finally, a thought about what moral and logical principle can be derived from Saddam’s execution. Perhaps that those who kill innocent people should be executed? Surely he was not just killed because he was a dictator- but because he was a brutal one? What is the decisive factor, that he was a dictator or that he killed innocent people? These are actually more difficult questions than you think (from the point of view of the US and its acolytes), because if you start to generalise, then the net may be cast wider than you want, as the US has killed many innocent people and some of its closest allies are tyrannies (and have also killed many people). How to devise a principle which captures only those who harm US interests? But then you move away from conventional morality into the dubious territory of neo-con/ New Labour morality.

Democracy in the Middle East

Do Bush and Blair really want democracy in the Middle East? You would have to be naïve, or more Blairite than Blair, to believe so. In Palestine, democracy delivered Hamas. In various Gulf states, limited exercises in democracy have seen religious parties victorious. Then there is Iraq, meant to be a beacon of democracy that was to shine in the region, it’s powerful rays throwing asunder neighbouring tyrannies and alighting a new phase of freedom. Alas there elections have only accentuated sectarian divisions.

What Bush and Blair really want are compliant tyrannies willing and happy to do the West’s bidding. I have seen no convincing argument against this view. Every word these leaders utter confirms this. How else can you explain the differential treatment of Palestine and Lebanon. In the latter, there is a precariously balanced (pro-Western) government from which the largest minority has withdrawn. In the former, the governing (independent-minded) party won an outright victory barely a year ago. Which of these two is the strongest candidate for a re-election? Blair and Bush’s choice isn’t the one based on what logic and rationality would suggest.

Christmas

Once again this year there is debate about how 'do-gooders' are eroding the spirit of Christmas by banning any reference to religion or the religious character of Christmas. The Telegraph reading- and writing- types who are up in arms are quite right. They are also generous enough to realise that it is not the potential recipients of 'do-goodery', the minorities, who are demanding the removal of any reference to Christmas. Quite the contrary- minorities are conscious that these ridiculous gestures only embolden the far right.

A bigger debate needs to be had about the commercialisation of Christmas. Even in the absence of 'do-goodery', Christmas is losing it's religious and spiritual character to the forces of materialism. About this the Telegraph reading and writing types say much less.

Season's greetings!

Iraq

The Iraq Study Group's report, which has dominated the news this week, is an irrelevance. What matters are the ground realities in Iraq and those look irretrievable. Iraq is heading towards disintegration along ethnic and sectarian lines. Much has been made of Iraq's 'democratically elected government'. Even if an election, under the watchful eye of an invading army, can be free and fair, the result hasn't done much to inculcate democratic values and culture. It merely fortified sectarianism.

On another note, Kofi Anan was condemned by some for saying things were now worse than under Saddam. Such visceral condemnation is totally unreasonable. Iraq is an extremely dangerous place to be in. Hundreds of people are being killed every month. There is no law and order. You literally have to worry sick about any family members who need to venture significantly away from home.

Under Saddam, you were not killed while out shopping. You were not killed for turning up to work. There should be no embarrassment in admitting that things were better under Saddam. A corollary of suggesting otherwise is that people living in other tyrannies, whether pro-Western like Saudi, or decidedly anti-Western like Iran, would be better off blowing each other up than they are now. It doesn't make sense.

Veil wars

Jack Straw’s comments about the veil are interesting not for what they say about the subject of the veil, but what may have motivated them. Straw is an extremely intelligent politician who does not make blunders. His every sentence is calculated, lucid and logical.

My own guess is that he is positioning himself for a shot at leadership. Blair’s days are numbered- and now is the time for positioning. So why the veil? Some time ago, there was speculation that he may have been demoted because certain US Neocons were alarmed by his dependence on Muslims. What better way for a revival than to engage in some Muslim-bashing?

As for the substance of the attack on the veil, there is some merit in it. He is right to say that effective communication and bridge-building depends on being able to see the other person. Talking to a person covered in black, with even the eyes scarcely visible, can be uncomfortable. But then so can many other things, including images of scantily clad women staring at us from billboards.

A more alarming development, which politicians should ponder, is why the use of the veil and other religious symbols- e.g. long bushy beards- has increased. It has increased most among young people, born and bred here. The idea that religious compulsion is behind the trend does not pass muster. When the parents and grandparents of these young people arrived in 50s and 60s, they did not go out of their way to make a religious statement. The women mostly wore colourful, silky headscarves rather than the black niqab.

Magic!

Among Mirpuris belief in magic, and its ability to visit ill on people, is rife. It is often used as an explanation for a range of problems, from mental health to marriage/ love problems. In my opinion, those who believe most strongly in magic often have undiagnosed emotional and/or mental problems.

There is also an ‘industry’ devoted to undoing the affects of magic. You can read the adverts placed in the minority press by people who offer such services. These include claims of stubborn lovers falling to your feet or being able to conceive (presumably those who wish you ill can, by their magic, prevent you from procreating). I am not sure what exactly ‘therapy’ to undo the affects of magic comprises, though I know amulets are often worn to cast away evil spirits.

It is easy to dismiss such beliefs as unscientific and irrational, which they undoubtedly are. However, when they form an important part of people’s interpretive baggage, it is not so easy to be dismissive. That is why many mental health practitioners try to understand and work with such beliefs.

When will the Geoffrey Howe moment come for Blair?

Those with an interest in politics will remember when Geoffrey Howe stood in Parliament and asked Tory MPs to reassess their loyalties. The speech wasn’t the beginning of the end, but it certainly was the decisive push which led to Thatcher’s resignation. So will Blair have a Howe moment? With a load of junior resignations announced today, that moment could be nigh.

For this to happen, there needs to be someone of sufficient authority to do the pushing. Brown is an obvious candidate, but with every day he delays the move, the move associated with Blairism he becomes. He tends to make is point by his silences. His silence on the Lebanon crisis is notable. Yet this approach, of remaining silent on issues that are purely Blair’s personal decisions, cannot last for long. People are entitled to ask what he did to stop Blair.

The other candidate of sufficient authority and independence of thought is Straw. He has an added motive, which is his demotion to the post of Leader of the House after the being Foreign Secretary. Already he has demonstrated his independence by saying things about the Lebanon crisis that Blair would not endorse. However, the longer he remains in the backwater, the more his authority lessens.

Can a computer programme cure depression?

A computer based cognitive-behavioural therapy programme is being trialled in the north of England for the treatment of depression. If the results are positive, then this could be a major breakthrough in getting people off drugs. With drugs, even if they cure or minimise the symptoms, they have other undesirable side-effects.

It will be interesting to see the results of the trial. In my opinion, anything that interests and occupies the mind can have a therapeutic effect for treating mild depression. I often feel symptoms that can certainly be described as mild depression. Yet I feel a lot better after an interesting read or by listening to music or even aimlessly surfing the net. We need to unburden ourselves by doing things that make us feel relaxed, that we can do for their own sake rather than as instruments for achieving other ends.

That’s partly why I am sceptical about the computer programme. It requires discipline, sitting behind a computer and rigidly- and nervously- following the instructions. It requires focusing on the problems. In my opinion, diversionary tactics work the best.

Good arranged marriage

Every so often, I like to return to the knotty subject of arranged marriage, triggered in most cases by experiences and examples of how it should not work. For arranged marriage is a complicated thing. In theory, it is a good thing- or at least no worse than any other way of finding a life partner. In practice, it very often means arranged in every sense, so that the marrying parties have no say at all. It is simply assumed that they are happy. The question of how they feel simply does not arise. That surely cannot be right. Yet this is how it was done in the past and continues to be done in many cases at present.

So what is ‘good’ arranged marriage, or will we be like the socialists who continued to insist that socialism was a good thing, but that the counter examples given by critics were not cases of ‘real’ socialism? I think it need not be like that. So I propose the following definition of good arranged marriage. I would welcome alternatives or comments:

Arranged marriage is when parents introduce a child, who has explicitly stated their readiness for marriage, to a potential marriage partner and if marriage follows from the introduction, it does so as a result of the explicit consent of both parties. Nothing is implicit.

'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.

Newspaper sellers in Brum

Has any other native Brummy noticed how the newspaper sellers in the city centre have become more vocal and pro-active? Formerly the older men would sit in their booth and occasionally shout "Get your paper". Now the newspaper sellers are younger and rarely inside the booth. Instead they are outside the booth, moving around and shouting regularly. I wonder if this is the result of suggestions by a highly paid business consultant.

Genius of capitalism

World cup fever is everywhere. Visiting a major clothing and trinkets store yesterday, it occurred to me how clever capitalism is at capturing the mood of the moment. It’s not just flags- of various varieties from waving type to the hanging from your upstairs window sort. Everything seemed to have a world cup theme. There were t-shirts, shorts and long sleeve shirts. Objects like cups and suitcases had a world cup theme. Even the staff were exuding world cup with their t-shirts, hats and face paints.

That is the genius of capitalism- to exploit the mood of the moment and then move on. These objects sell at very high cost, often to people who can ill afford them. Those aimed at children rely on pester power to make a killing. In a few weeks time, when the world cup fever is no more, any items not flogged now will be sold at hugely knocked down sale prices.

National traits

Be sceptical when writers and columnists tell you about national traits. Such generalisations are useless. If there is anything distinctive discernible about a nation, it normally affects the elites only. Even elite tastes are now being internationalised. Talk of national traits is outdated, even though it only ever applied to a select few within nations.

Tying the knot- untying tradition

British Mirpuri marriage habits are slowly but surely beginning to change. For a while, it was ‘customary’ to marry first cousins based in Mirpur. Now though this custom has always been fairly common in Mirpur, I believe it increased during the 1980s and 1990s, mainly as a convenient way of avoiding the end of primary immigration. Why do I say this? Because in many cases, where both a male and female first cousin, of similar age, are Mirpur based, the respective families would endeavour to find a suitable partners from the UK, even if they are not first cousins. In other words, the aim of sending ones son or daughter is stronger than the ‘custom’ of cousin marriage.

Now all this is beginning to change. Any minority culture can only remain insulated from the influences of the majority culture for so long. The change is being led by young people themselves, who are demanding a greater a say in who, and indeed if, they marry. Many parents are also beginning to change. Whereas previously the minimum condition was that any potential marriage partner should hail from the Mirpur district and be of the same caste, now any British Pakistani Muslim will do.

There is rumour in the Mirpuri community that the rules on bringing partners over will be tightened, perhaps with age/ language restrictions, or a re-introduction of the dreaded ‘primary purpose’ rule, where the onus was on the parties to a marriage to prove that the primary purpose was marriage and not the chance to enter the UK. It meant many people, in perfectly happy marriages, had to go through years of appeals and re-appeals before their partners could join them.

I am not sure if changing the law is the best way forward. There are cultural and social issues, which change with the times. Already things are beginning to change, even though rules have been relaxed since 1997. Over time, things will have to change completely. It is better that change occurs through cultural evolution, than through the force of the law.

Donkey in the veranda!

The hacienda-style mansions dotting Mirpur mask the hard work and long hours spent in earning the pounds- whether as taxi drivers, factory workers or shop owners. Most of them lie empty, their owners living in overcrowded terraces in England. It has now become a cliché among some critical Mirpuris that the deserted mansions are used only by donkeys seeking shade from the midday heat!

Why do people waste huge amounts on properties they hardly live in? I suspect there are a number of reasons, including competition (my mansion is bigger than yours), lingering belief in the myth of return (even though we have now been in the UK for 50 years and our children and their children were born here) and, probably for some people, investing in a mansion is a convenient tax management/ evasion/ avoidance strategy.

Pilgrimage to Mecca

Congratulations to those who have completed the Haj this year. As a reflection of greater prosperity and the conquest of distance, every year sees the number of people making the journey increase. The Saudis would not be able to cope if they admitted everyone who wanted to make the pilgrimage. Yesterday’s stampede in Mina, which killed more than 350 pilgrims, shows the need for a limit on the number of people admitted every year. I do not think one can criticise the Saudis on this matter. They have done all they can- what else can be done to prevent a disaster from occurring in a sea of humanity, 2.5 million strong, congregated in a very small space for the purpose of casting stones at some pillars. Any solution that does not involve limiting the number of pilgrims would not work.

As the number of those bearing the epithet Haji increases, I cannot but notice how the Haj, and other religious rituals, are becoming devoid of any spiritual content. The Haj should be a cathartic journey, spiritually fulfilling. Yet the evidence I see around me would suggest anything but. Many people who make the journey are totally unprepared for it.

‘Lottery winners’

Non-Mirpuri Pakistanis, struggling to make ends meet, consider Mirpur as a collective lottery winner, because a large proportion of its population are settled in the UK. It is one of the first comments I expect to hear from porters, porters-cum-beggars (how else can I describe 5 people trying to grab my single holdall), just beggars and taxi drivers. They demand payment, or charity, in pounds not rupees. If you protest, you are reminded of your extraordinary good luck and duty to fellow countrymen. On one occasion, an elderly female beggar claimed she was not begging but merely claiming her due from her ‘son’.

The non-Mirpuri Pakistanis see only the conspicuous symbols of wealth, such as the hacienda-style mansions that dot the Mirpur district. They have no idea of the long hours spent as taxi drivers, factory workers or corner shop owners in England!

The British Mirpuri condition…

I want to start a series of blog entries on the condition of British Mirpuris (BM). That is not to suggest that there is anything extraordinary about BM, just that as an insider I am well placed to comment. In addition, the way the character of an essentially rural people- sniggered at for their ‘goatherd mentality’ by city-dwelling Pakistanis- has changed in the UK is fascinating.

Any suggestions on issues that should be covered would be most welcome.

State of democracy

The forcible ejection of the mild-mannered heckler Walter Wolfgang from the Labour conference hall leaves a bad taste in the mouth about the state of democracy in the UK. For me, two points stand out in particular.

First, Labour’s spin machine gave the impression that the octogenarian was a persistent heckler, whereas it seems he just shouted the single word “nonsense” to Straw’s justification of the Iraq war.

The second point relates to the arrest of Mr Wolfgang under anti-terrorism laws. Where does that leave the government’s argument that anti-terror laws are not an attack on civil liberties? Should the millions who agree that the case for the war was based on “nonsense” also be arrested? Are we all guilty of glorifying terrorism by leaping to Mr Wolfgang’s defence?

People shifters

Post-war labour shortages in the UK led to an open door immigration policy during the 1950s and early 60s. That is when most Mirpuri men, such as my father and grandfather, came to the UK. Having gained a foothold, these early settlers were in an ideal position to bring close relatives to whom they felt obligated.

Mirpuris have a strong sense of responsibility and obligation towards close relatives. Mirpur itself had few economic opportunities. What better way than to arrange for close male relatives to join you in the UK? That would almost instantly lift an entire family out of poverty. So long as the factories and mills had an insatiable appetite for labour, this was easy to do. However, inevitably the open-door policy came to an end. Ever since immigration was first restricted, Mirpuris have been creatively negotiating the labyrinth of legislative and regulatory hurdles. In the main, they have continued to fulfil obligations to close ones.

At first, it was relatively easy. Men began to bring their eldest sons to join them. Then they invited their entire families. In some cases, they brought the children of close relatives, claiming they were their own. Again, this was from an overriding sense of obligation. Those children would work and remit money back to their parents and younger brothers and sisters. In a sense, bringing the children of close relatives was also a way of fulfilling, once and for all, obligations to them. Once those relatives had a foothold in the UK, there was no longer an ongoing obligation to support them. The eldest son would take on that role.

Although immigration policy got tighter, Mirpuris continued to creatively circumnavigate the complexities. Two important routes were used. One was to bring elderly parents. In most cases, this was straight forward. In some cases, people sponsored, as parents, those who were not their real parents (for example, older brothers and sister, uncles, aunts etc). Another route has been through arranged marriage.