[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (15 June 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2
15 June 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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#1. Tragedy of Kashmir's young
#2. The Making of the Pakistani Mind
#3. Netting Knowledge:Truth, Friendship and Enlightenment
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#1.

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA
Tuesday, 13 June, 2000, 13:39 GMT 14:39 UK

TRAGEDY OF KASHMIR'S YOUNG
The endless violence has taken its toll

By Ajoy Bose in Srinagar
More than a decade of bloody conflict between militants and security forces
in the Kashmir valley has taken a heavy toll on the psyche of the younger
generation.
With no end in sight to the relentless cycle of violence, there is an
increasing sense of drift and despair amongst Kashmiri youth.
"We can't study properly. Nor do we feel like having fun. It is difficult
to think or behave normally under the constant shadow of the gun," lamented
Yakub Butt, a university student in the Kashmiri capital, Srinagar.
He and his friends now spend all their time searching for an occupation
outside Kashmir. People here keep getting killed every day but we don't
know why Irshad Hussain

They are openly envious of Mushtaq, a second year medical student who
dropped out to get a job as a cosmetics salesman in Kuala Lumpur.
"Lucky chap, he managed to get away," his friends were unanimous.
Fear
There was a time when the cafes and street corners of Srinagar used to
bustle with political debate.
Today there is sullen silence.
Nor is there any display of insurrectionary zeal that marked the start of
armed insurgency spearheaded by the youth in the early 1990s.
Life is anything but normal

With shadowy foreign mercenaries steadily edging
out local insurgent groups from militant politics, few want to get
involved.
"Frankly, we are scared to get involved. People here keep getting killed
every day but we don't know why," said young Irshad Hussain.
Yet, despite the growing apathy of the youth with the politics of
insurgency, some get inadvertantly sucked into the cycle of violence.
Suicide attack
The most recent example of this is the mysterious suicide bombing by
18-year old school student Affaq Ahmed Shah. He didn't even know how to
drive a car
Parents of Affaq Ahmed Shah
He was blown to bits after ramming a car full of explosives into the army
barracks in Srinagar.
His father Mohammed Yusuf Shah, a retired lecturer and mother Halima, a
teacher, are devastated not just at the loss of their son but the
inexplicable circumstances of his death.
"He was a meek, religious child and least interested in politics. He
didn't even know how to drive a car," they said amidst tears.

Some are inadvertantly sucked into the cycle of violence
A new militant group, Jaish-e-Muhammad, has hailed Affaq as a martyr
claiming him as one of its activists.
But police investigating the case are still not sure whether the schoolboy
- who went missing from home three weeks before the bombing - was indeed
Srinagar's first suicide bomber or whether the bombs in the car were
actually detonated by remote control, without his knowledge.
Juvenile crime
The daily uncertainties of life and death have fuelled an alarming rise in
psychotic disorders among the young.
"It has got to the stage when even when we go down with a slight fever,
doctors here feel it may be due to nervous tension and prescribe
tranquilisers," said Fayaz Fani, a student.
In Srinagar's main SMHS hospital, there are three to four cases of suicide
or attempted suicide by young people reported almost every day.
A paradise lost?

Doctors say that girls appear far more prone to suicide than boys.
With the growing violence on the streets and strict restrictions on dress
and behaviour imposed on them by militant groups, girls spend most of their
time indoors.
Those who venture outside do so at a risk.
A few weeks ago, a girl was shot at on Srinagar's main boulevard for
wearing jeans.
Juvenile crimes, virtually unknown before in the Kashmir valley, are also
mounting.
Many of these are believed to be committed by children of families
affected by the conflict which is estimated to have left nearly 10,000
orphans in Srinagar alone.
_______

#2.

THE MAKING OF THE PAKISTANI MIND *

Zia Mian

The News, Islamabad
6 November 1994

After years of political neglect and niggardly funding, it seems that the
"Era of Benazir" will be an "Era of Education." In the last cabinet
meeting, the government decided to introduce legislation guaranteeing
increases in spending on education, in a "graduated way", between now and
the year 2001. Thousands of new primary schools will be built, and new
teachers employed to teach in them. Millions of eager children will be
given the chance to learn how to read and write. This is enough of an
education policy for most people. For others though, there are the
questions of what these children will learn to read, and what they will
learn to write. And here the government seems to want no change.
So what exactly are the objectives of a proper primary education here, and
how are they being realised. One answer has been given recently by the
=46ederal Secretary for Information and Broadcasting, Hussain Haqqani, (The
News, Oct. 30th): a proper Pakistani education enables children to "become
good citizens, good Muslims, and good human beings." To achieve this
children have to be taught about the society they live in, the way it
works, its successes, and failures, its history and what kind of society it
could become. In other words they have to be taught Social Studies.
Children are taught Social Studies in Class IV (age eight) and Class V (age
nine) and the existing curriculum can be had from the National Bureau of
Curriculum and Textbooks, in the Ministry of Education.

The curriculum is remarkably explicit. It lists "objectives", breaks them
down into detailed "contents" and gives the relevant "activities" for
realising them. For example, by the end of Class IV children are, among
other things, supposed to be able to "explain the administrative set-up of
their province." And the curriculum lists various relevant features,
Legislative Assembly, High Court, Public Service Commission, etc., and the
"activity" involves making maps and charts representing this set-up.
The children are also supposed to be able to "Demonstrate an appreciation
of the Ideology of Pakistan." But here, there are no details. There are
also no suggested activities. Nor for that matter are there any details on
how the children are expected to "Demonstrate the understanding and
acceptance of Islamic values." But then these are controversial questions
and even the best scholars would disagree about how to demonstrate such
appreciation and understanding. There are some issues however, about which
the curriculum is only too clear.

In the Social Studies curriculum for Class V, there is a section entitled
"Islamic Republic of Pakistan." It contains a list of "Specific Learning
Objectives" that are breathtaking in their clarity. They will structure the
nine year-old child's first sustained encounter with what Pakistan is all
about. There is naturally some material that overlaps what is taught in
Class IV. This is the material on understanding the Hindu and Muslim
differences and the resultant need for Pakistan, as well as identifying
various persons who worked for the independence of Pakistan. The really new
learning experience comes later.

The curriculum states that at the completion of Class V, the child will be
able to: "Acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against
Pakistan." How exactly is a nine year child supposed to "Acknowledge and
identify forces that may be working against Pakistan"? If the child is
encouraged to read the newspapers, it may easily come to the conclusion
that these "forces" have been identified at one time or other as including
the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and just about every
other major political figure in the country. But the curriculum comes into
its own here. There is no room for confusion. These "forces" result from
"India's evil designs against Pakistan (The three wars with India)" and
"The Kashmir Problem."
That this is a travesty of history is perhaps the least that needs to be
said. Pakistan was clearly responsible for starting both of the last two
wars with India - as retired Air Marshal Nur Khan put it in his interview
in Herald (in September): "We talked ourselves into two wars. These wars
were not necessary." Is anyone going to teach that to the children?
After filling their heads with hate, and lies, the curriculum sets a final
objective. The children have to be able to "Demonstrate a desire to
preserve the ideology, integrity and security of Pakistan." The only clue
given for an appropriate activity is "making speeches on Jihad and
Shahadat". Presumably the children having learnt their earlier lessons are
supposed to proclaim their readiness to die fighting against India.
After learning about the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the children are
intoduced to another remarkable section of the curriculum, which follows on
from this theme. It is entitled "Safety." The curriculum requires that at
the end of Class V the children "will be able to understand the role of the
defence forces of Pakistan." What is there to understand? There is, of
course, no mention of the "role of the defence forces" in declaring martial
law, or having the odd Prime Minister thrown out of office. Understanding
begins with "Safety from rumour mongers who spread false news" and only
then "Safety from foreign invasions" - the biggest danger is obviously "the
enemy within." The detailed activities set out for the children are "To
learn exercise of civil defence," and "To stage drama signifying the evils
of rumours." They are also expected to "collect the pictures of policemen,
soldiers and national guards."

After years of such indoctrination it is not surprising that for most
people, soldiers, especially generals, are heroes. After all, if they were
seen as failures and villains it would reflect badly on the country. Who is
going to tell the nine year old child that, as Nur Khan said, "people like
Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Ziaul Haq....were a disaster." Who is going to
point out in their book of photos of soldiers, that this one suppressed
democracy for a decade, this one unleashed the army against the population
in a desperate attempt to subvert democracy, this one killed a prime
minister and had thousands tortured in his efforts to stay in power and
create Islam? But children will be taught nothing like this.

Nor will they be taught about how much hero-worship has cost. And will
continue to cost. The government's announced intention is to increase
education spending from the current 2.4% of the Gross National Product (the
total value of all the goods and services produced in the country in a
year) to 3% over the next five years. The 2.4% of GNP being spent on
education (about twelve billion rupees) is indeed pitifully inadequate.
Especially when compared with the nearly 20% of GNP allocated by this
government to the military in this year's budget - military spending was
set at over one hundred and one billion rupees. And this spending will not
need legislation to protect it. The education system will do fine, as long
as generations of children continue filling their days acknowledging and
identifying the enemies of Pakistan, staging dramas on the evils of
rumours, and collecting pictures of soldiers.

* [3rd November 1994]
_______

#3.

Spider Magazine (www.spider.tm): June, 2000

NETTING KNOWLEDGE
TRUTH, FRIENDSHIP AND ENLIGHTENMENT

Q. Isa Daudpota

Countries at war demonize the other side. Distorted
history books and the misinformation media glorify the home side and
downgrade the other.

Just look at South Asia to see what such an attitude has
wrought. Wouldn't it be wonderful if intellectuals from both countries could
jointly write history, social studies and cultural textbooks that could be
accessed by all students in this region? Maybe UNESCO or such body could
assist with payment to authors, but come to think of it, volunteers could
set up an Internet textbook site at virtually no cost if authors are willing
to forego remuneration initially. In time, support will be found through
advertising on the site and a philanthropic organization will appear. A
little bit of faith, some mad academics and this project could be flying
soon.

Many of you will be familiar with Chowk where many
cerebral South Asian types hang out.

www.chowk.com

There is chat of course, but much serious writing that you
may want to get your teeth into. This site run principally by Pakistanis in
the West has three regular columnist of Indian origin (two of them live are
in North America now).

Ms Jawahara Saidullah writing under the banner
"Chronicling Humanity" presents a varied menu. "Delhi Calling" by Veeresh
Malik living in India says that he is interested in "Getting to know more
about street and ground level Pakistan, and willing to share the same
knowledge about India, hopefully without letting stereotypes and bias coming
in the way... Current short-term aim: to drive across Pakistan and write
about it." And then there is S. P. Udayakumar with his "Political
Meditations" column. He also runs an active Internet list that exposes the
wrong-doings of the BJP government. These ambassadors of a sensible India
help to bridge the gap between people in our countries. I hope that web
sites similar to the ones run by Indians have a similar number of
enlightened Pakistanis contributing to the dialogue.

There was a reason for writing about community networking
at the Chowk site. It is to suggest that, in addition to the text book site
for South Asia, we could do with a moderated list for schools and higher
level students and academics for exchange of ideas and opinions about these
textbooks and on other issues of interest. Maybe SPIDER along with a similar
publication in India could get it going. One needs two moderators, one on
each side of the border to begin with.

In mid-March I received information from an old colleague,
Hasan Rizvi of SDNP, Islamabad, that the Federation of American Scientist
had put on their web site the satellite imagery of Pakistan's nuclear
installations. Here's everything you wanted to find but couldn't even ask.

www.fas.org/eye/indo-pak.html

The high-resolution images, acquired by the Federation of
American Scientists from the Space Imaging IKONOS satellite, show details of
Pakistan's weapons facilities previously known only to the secret
intelligence world.

For some of your reading this, this site may already be
old news, but I got this information several hours before the press briefing
in the USA by the producers of this site. Such is the speed of Internet
communication! This site has a wealth of information on all aspects of
nuclear security and a must visit for students and scholars. Just look at
the main page of the site.

www.fas.org

By the time you do, the promised photos of the sensitive
Indian sites may be available. Pakistani commentators debated why the photos
of only our side were shown, and that too before the much-hyped Clinton
visit. My impression and that of others about our photos was that there
isn't really very much to see there for the untrained eye.

While nuclear weapons create an illusion of security, they
are extremely dangerous for you. Optical illusions on the other hand are
great fun.

www.illusionworks.com

IllusionWorks, developed by the California Institute of
Technology, has got to be of outstanding quality. The site has an
introductory (presently not functional) and an advanced section as well as
many other delicious parts that could keep you happy for months. It will
teach you a few things about your brain. May your eyes survive.

Finally, let me take you to a site that you may never tire
off, particularly if you have an academic bent of mind.

www.edge.org

For me it has been the best find of 1999, and one that I
had been searching for during the last few years, after I heard about its
founder John Brockman and his Edge Foundation. Finally I got a lead to it
from Zaheer Kidvai, the man who produced a CD-ROM on Faiz and has been the
pioneer of the use of computers for education in Pakistan (See his interview
in SPIDER's February 1999 issue).

Brockman is the publishing agent of many of the finest
writers on science and cutting-edge issues. He regularly invites his gaggle
of writers and thinkers to express their views on an amazing range of
subjects. Wouldn't you like to know what was the greatest invention of the
past 2000 years? Not just a listing but detailed justification by the
erudite participants. There are extended interviews of famous scientists and
engineers such as Stephen Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins (there is
a web page elsewhere just discussing his controversial theories), Rodney
Brooks (robotics pioneer) and Steward Brand (founder of the Whole Earth
Review at www.wholeearth.org - another wonderful resource for those who want
to think and act. This site may still be under re-construction.)

So go for Edge and you will be forever enlightened.

QID has degrees in Electronic Engineering and Physics from
Britain, where he has also taught. He researched in applied math and
computational fluid dynamics in the USA and taught at Sindh University for 6
years. QID was founding Director of the Sustainable Development Networking
Programme until December 1997. Since then he is a free man. Your comments
and ideas can reach him at daudpota@s...
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