خوشحال خان خټک : د افغان ننګ

Khushal Khan Khattak: Afghan Pride

During these troubled times for the Pashtoons, I shall take a little look back in history to honour Khushal Khan Khattak, (خوشحال خان خټک) celebrated warrior and poet.

The Pashtoon heartlands have been at the helm of successive waves of aggression, both internal and external and this has led to localised resistance and an almost continual state of chaos. Recent history bears this out - 19th century policies of the British in India led to three wars with Afghanistan as part of "The Great Game" strategy centred around Russian and the British rivalry for control over Central Asia. The resistance - which Pashtoons are famed for - has been demonstrated time and again - during the Sikh excursions into Afghan territory, the Russian Occupation and the recent American-led invasion.

Earlier, during 17th Century Mughal rule, Khushal Khan Khattak (born near Nowshera, 1613 into a celebrated family) took up a revolt against the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. Khushal Khan's father, Shahbaz Khan and grandfather, Malik Akoray had held service under the Emperor Shah Jahan, but by the time that Aurangzeb has ascended the throne, the relationships had soured and Khushal Khan was imprisoned in Gwalior Fortress, South of Agra.

Warrior Poet: The Pen And The Sword

As well as leading the resistance upon his release, Khushal Khan worked to unite the Pashtoon tribes. Over the years, he wrote considerablly and built up a formidable anthology of poems on war, honour and love. He died in 1689 and asked to be buried on the frontiers of the Mughal Empire. The epitaph on his Mazar in Nowshera, modern Pakistan reads:

د افغان په ننګ مې وتړله توره
ننګيالی د زمانې خوشحال خټک يم

I have taken up the sword to defend the pride of the Afghan,
I am Khushal Khattak, the honourable man of this age.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Kill the Dragon: $1 A Day

The Atlantic Council's Afghanistan Report highlights some very interesting points. Over the next couple of postings, I'd like to pick out some of these as they give us lots of food for thought, but before that lets consider some of the immediate issues faced by the country:

• weak governance and corruption
• flourishing narcotics trade forming an under-belly economy
• weakened education systems
• extremism/Taliban/insurgency

I'm not quite sure where I stand with the whole governance issue - I'm a natural political cynic, (probably more so) knowing that warlords and corrupt officials were invited into the post 9/11 Afghan administration. What I do know for sure is that historically, successive governments in Afghanistan have been subject to interference and manipulation by neighbouring (as well as distant) countries. Fingers, alas, point in several different directions, including the countries on the immediate doorstep.

Living off $1 a day

But the main point I would like to highlight in this posting is the most simple in my opinion. With the rural income per capita at $1 a day, opimium farming is far more profitable than traditional agriculture. Afghanistan has ample potential for being a nation with a strong economy based on agriculture. If the balance could be tipped from $1 to $4 a day, the opium trade would become unprofitable.

Simple.

Money-Go-Round

The recent controversy in the UK about MPs' expenses begs the question whether we can ever trust them to be the guardians of public standards. Reluctantly perhaps, we need them - in a democracy we chose them to shape knowing that they will shape our lives according to party rules. They have nice little committees and clubs in Whitehall and Westminster and in order to do their job must spend public's money wisely .... But then, I've not been convinced by politicians for a long time and nor do I consider them wise in their decision-making ...

Public Money

There is something known as the trickle down effect, allegedly - that is that people at the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder eventually feel the benefits of the wealth generated and/or spending by the powerful and rich in society. In other words the poor and powerless needn't complain because wealthy and powerful will eventually do them good.

Yeah right. By that token, we shouldn't really complain about the frivolity of British MPs who lavish tax-payers money on garden gates, hotel accomodation, dubious claims for second homes and home-cinema systems. They are clearly doing this for the public good that they serve. And when we do question - note here - I speak about the print and electronic media, we're intrusive - we judge politicians on matters other than the job in hand; we cross the line between politics and the personal, by probing their family matters and exposing others to an unforgiving media glare.

Notice that I don't flinch. We're luckier than most in the UK that we have a media* that is made up of hungry wolf packs, out there to hunt and savage their leadership. We're prepared to tear people down, by searching their trash cans and closets to shame and bring them to their knees for an exposé. We hound them and encircle them, making their lives difficult and leaving them nowhere to hide by dragging their colleagues, friends and nearest into the spotlight.

Casualties

MPs will say that they have their standards and I don't claim to enjoy people squirming in embarassment the public domain. I don't like the notion of the innocent being dragged into this, but I do believe that the media, in pursuit of a kill, don't bother too much with the those people around politicians who are not complicit when they are on to something. It's the politicians that they target - precision targetting if you like.

The media has an agenda and they are not always fair - I know enough to know that, but that they periodically mount a campaign to scrutinise politicians is not something that I criticise them for. We can all sense the fishiness, the phoniness, the contrived photo ops and the carefully constructed smoothness that surrounds political movers and shakers. In a democracy it's even worse, because we are led to believe that because we have chosen these people, that we are, in part, responsible. Maybe we are, but the ever-decreasing number of ordinary people prepared to vote for politicians is actually an indictment on the whole mess that they have now come to represent. Just read this ludicrous story about an MP arrogantly claiming that people are jealous of his wealth.

Of course, as people, we're all fallible, politicians included. we all deserve to be forgiven, but I make an exception with politicians (or public campaigners or religious leaders). Cheat the people you claim to represent, distort the truth and then claim that the media is out to get you means that your beginning to outlive any usefulness that you may have had.

Serves them right if they are ousted or pressurised to go and the door closed on their return to power. Home-cinema systems indeed.

* this probe into MPs spending is courtesy of The Telegraph

Class Warfare

My work as an Educational Advisor certainly has its interesting moments. I've been invigilating exams all week and last week I dutifully turned up to a Grade 8 Science exam. There was already a teacher in the room as I expected - we greeted and just got on with the business of handing out papers. Then something happened - can't quite tell you what, but that doesn't matter too much, except there was some name calling, some shouting and then a fight. Not a student fight. They, as I've just said, were already seated in class. The fight (yep - fists rolled back, chests puffed out) was between two members of staff, the teacher already in class and the school social worker.

I had to wedge myself in between and push them apart. When that didn't work I had to pull them back. The kids stared on - quite amused I guess, whilst the three of us looked like clowns at the front of the class. Fortunately, a passing teacher rushed in and grabbed the social worker, whilst I pulled the teacher away.

Tensions can run high in schools from time to time, but this is a first for me. Teacher M is Palestinian-Jordanian, Social Worker A is Egyptian. I didn't quite get to the bottom of it, and needless to say, this is a very poor professional example to set in front of a whole class audience. I'm just reminded on occasions like this, how so far away from home, I am.

Weapons Trail ...

Extra, extra, read all about it - from the New York Times. War is dirty and its not surprising that this happens at all. Military supplies provided by the US to allied forces, ending up with the enemy? Double dealing? And by whom?

Children of War

The reality to the chaos of war are the children who get displaced when families are forced to leave. It's a tragedy. I have children too. I tell them that they are lucky because we are in a safe place. We are the same, after all. The same as the children of Swat in the pictures here.

The violence in the Malakand Division has led to the biggest movement of people within Pakistan since the Partition of India in 1947.

I was sent this link (see http://www.swatvalleyappeal.org.uk). It's a humaritarian appeal:

Déjà Vu

AfPak/PakAf

Rudyard Kipling once wrote, "Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old."

... I'm not at all sure about the recent AfPak/PakAf strategy emanating from the US. The Americans are failing miserably in Afghanistan because increasingly the Afghans associate them with military and not aid and development. There's a protracted war with the Taliban where there are many civilian casualties. Then there are the Drone Attacks launched by Americans in the Pashtoon belt to target the militants (whilst Washington and Islamabad look the other way). This does the Americans no favours amongst local civilians. Kinds of feeds the beast they say that they are trying to tame. See Eric Maroglis's commentary on the issue.

The AfPak/PakAf strategy sets out a pathway, that we've been along before. US failure to bring peace and order to the Pashtoon belt, is now the joint responsibility of the US and Pakistan military. There's lots of talk about financial aid, military upsurges, engaging Pakistan's civil and military leadership and nation building through increased diplomatic ties etc. There are promises of huge amounts of US dollars being pumped into Pakistan to manage (through brute force if needed) the restive Khyber. With an impoverished economy, the obligations to comply are self-evident. The US calls the shots. Pakistan pulls the trigger.

Déjà Vu: Circular History

Isn't this a case of US policy to Afghanistan being directed through Pakistan another instance of déjà vu? Think Afghan Mujahideen vs the Soviets - it was to all effects America's war too, chanelled through Pakistan. Whilst it is acknowledged that the restive areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the tribal Pashtoon belt are important, the press-release of the AfPak/PakAf strategy doesn't really talk about engaging with the leadership in Pashtoon areas. It focuses mainly on the establishment - the military and the weak governments in Kabul and Islamabad. 

Does anybody believe that the military campaign in the Malakand Division and the displacement now of about 2.5 million people, that the US (renting out the Pakistan army) will break the Pashtoon spirit? The Taliban came from somewhere, someone trained and armed them and they have drawn their recruits from amongst the disaffected and unemployed in the tribal areas. But the Taliban and the Pashtoons are not the same. The sad part is that from deep within the Pashtoon areas, the Taliban have risen from apparent obscurity and have shaken the notion of what it is to be Pashtoon by means of violent break with our cultural past. Two and a half million people displaced, so far (and likely to increase), scattered and broken and living on the plains in tents are not Taliban.

There's a lot at stake here and one can see why some may blame the Americans if the Taliban are not broken soon. The track record doesn't make one very optimistic. American involvement in Afghanistan puts us all in the situation that we find ourselves in today. Afghanistan and Pakistan need roads, and electricity, they need clean water and development so that people can go back to their villages and live a decent life. Disengage with people's long term needs by destroying their lives and livelihoods and keeping them in camps makes them vulnerable to the messages of swift justice, revolution and order of the Taliban. If the US doesn't deliver and displaced people are sent back to the tribal areas, then the human time bomb ticks on.

History is a great teacher if we look back and are prepared to learn. The Brits, the Russians and the Americans have all been caught up in fighting protracted wars with the Pashtoons, so Pakistan should know better. The difference between the aforementioned examples and the Pakistan military operations are that the former were/are fighting in foreign climes. This is Pakistan's own backyard and the perception is that Pakistan is doing Americas dirty work. Also crucially, for the Pakistan army the situation is even more critical - warfare weaponry and techniques have changed and arial bombing by the technologically superior is met with suicide blasts by those on the ground. Of course, both hit the innocent - ordinary civilians - women; children; menfolk. This is where I'm most saddened.

Muted Voices

I wish the world could see it from another perspective. Pashtoons are tired of the wars in Afghanistan; tired of great games played out between the Russians, the US and earlier British Imperial forces. Tired of the war on terror, and tired of being associated with the Taliban. Tired with the hopeless lack of investment by successive governments on the receiving end of US aid to build up utility, education, communication and road infrastructures. Tired of being exposed to third-rate schooling options. Tired of being considered backwards and treated as so, and tired of being muted and constantly ignored.

Whiskers and Tails

Cautionary Tale/Tail*

There is a reason that I don't like slugs - fat, ugly, slimy and destructive - but more on that in a moment.  To begin with, my story, where the moral, I suppose, is about sharing the truth, but keeping enough of it back so that you don't feel like you are lying.

Nostalgia, perhaps, clouds some of the more accurate points here, but when I was little, once, quite unannounced, I made an impulse buy using up every little penny I had saved and came home with a cavy. It was small, twitched its nose, had little bright eyes and ran around in the straw. I wasn't really allowed - we had rules around animals that had to be followed, but staring at me as it did from behind the glass window of the pet store, it adopted me as much I adopted it.

So I brought it home and called it Winnie. As in Winne-the-Guinea. Except, primarily because it was a rodent, my parents were not sure at all. .Notice, I said I started by saying that I came home a 'cavy'. Well popularly they are known as guinea pigs, though back then, in the 1980s, in Yorkshire, pigs, in a Muslim household didn't fit, so I had to describe the animal with caution.

Since the day Winnie came to live with us, I learned an important lesson in life - without lying, you pick your words carefully. Fortunately, I don't think my parents would have known the word for guinea pig in Urdu or Pashto, but they were sensitive around the word 'pig'. Really sensitive and looking back, I think I understand given their world view point. In any case, I would refer to my new pet as a cavy or a guinea. Winnie the Guinea. That bought me some time so that meanwhile Winnie would come out of her cage and nibble sunflower seeds sitting on my lap, even though my folk continued to eye her suspiciously. Something just wasn't right and it was only a matter of time before a slip of the tongue when the little creature was referred to as a guinea pig  - Winnie the Pig. I couldn't justify a pig, so after a few days in the house, it banished to a hut outside the house and was not welcome inside.



Cochon d'Inde

Once I got over the initial faux pas, my parents did however, put enough trust in me, to not make me miserable. n the ensuing weeks, it had several description changes. "It's actually from Guinea, hence the name Guinea," I think I pleaded. (Wrong, in fact - these animals are South American, and not African as I now know). After I did the geography thing - Guinea, (too far away, not culturally accessible), I switched places. India was familiar - my parents were born in British India, so I even opted for the name that mentioned India - Cochon d'Inde. French. Except Cochon d'Inde translates as Pig of India. Oops.

By the time I knew the word "cavy", Winnie was outdoors; though, like I said, I was allowed to continue keeping her. Summers felt long back then. She ate well, and played well and grew to a nice size. She loved the garden, would sometimes get to run and hide in my father's vegetable patch and was admired by the neighbours. She died one October, when a cold snap hit. I was devastated. Maybe it was the chill that got her, but I found a slug, on her cage, alive and well. In October!

For years, I believed the slug had somehow caused Winnie's death. The other kids in the neighbourhood backed me up and I grew a disliking for slugs. As an adult, I'm still put off by (after the rain or their sudden appearance in the dark on a damp night). I dislike the way they are attracted some of my favourite plants in garden. I dislike accidentally stepping into them. That turns my stomach. Be done with them - whether its plants, my shoes or Winnie!

Needless to say, I've been a fan of slug pellets ever since.

Letter She Wrote

An MBA student trapped in the Swat writes to the BBC. She speaks of the struggles, the abandonment by the government and a pact (that many talk about) between the intelligence services and the militant forces.

Tor_Khan تور خان

I am still in Swat. I will not leave my homeland because of the Taleban and I'll fight against them with every possible means.

Our communication system is not working. My phone hasn't been working for many days, it only gets a signal occasionally. There is no electricity and we are using a generator. We have a limited supply of oil to run it, running it for half an hour every 24 hours to charge the laptop and the phones. I am writing this in a hurry.

Most of the people in our town and surrounding villages have left. The ones who have remained want to leave, but most have no money for transport. I know that people in refugee camps live in bad conditions, but the government and international donors are ignoring those remaining in Swat.

People are hungry. Because of the curfew there is a shortage of food. We are running out of stored food items. But we are at risk every time we go out as we might be targeted by the Taleban or the army.

There are many Taleban commanders in my village. Their intelligence is so good, they know what we discuss in our homes. Six days ago one of my relatives was slaughtered. His dead body was left on the road for four days and nobody handed it over to his parents.

I know who the local Taleban are. I know them personally. Some of them are my distant relatives. A friend of mine works for the police here and he knows them too, but he can't do anything. The ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] targeted and destroyed the police force structure, clearing ground for Taleban activities.

In the past, when people have come forward with the details of Taleban they know, they have been betrayed. Everybody here is against the Taleban. But for me there is a big question mark over the dedication of the Pakistani army. The Taleban have their own FM radio station. How come they can be traced by foreign media to give interviews, but they can't be traced and killed by the army? Mingora is under Taleban control.

What is the army doing about it?

Skool Politix

Agents of Change: Lurking in the Shadows

What I don't understand are the mysterious ways in which certain forces* manage to get their way sometimes. Maybe they slip through when we're not looking, maybe they're extra persuasive. Who knows? Apparently, in the interests of Health and Safety, traditional knotted ties are losing favour in British Schools. The UK isn't quite over the class politics that spills over into our schools and the idea of "embrace all"/"one size fits" is borne out of guilt. The latest absurdity, is that knotted ties are now being replaced with a new brand of clip-on ties. The reason? Knotted ties are a noose waiting to strangulate the unsuspecting or to go up in flames in a Science lesson. By the same logic laid out here, anyone wearing sandals on a sunny day is just waiting for that piano to drop on their toes. (I actually thought that uniform designers invested heavily in Teflon to reduce combustibility, but clearly I was misled, so what, do we simply disrobe?)

Health and Safety gone mad

OK, so things change, but I'm irritated at the pomposity of it all, and in particular of people who pontificate from ivory towers. School trips were near enough almost impossible to get clearance for back in England. Nuts, for example, are a forbidden ingredient, so lunch boxes are monitored in case they trigger a bout of reactions from the people around you - but wait for it - so are eggs in some schools because of the very rare allergic reactions that the latter may trigger in others. I had a cousin who was allergic to cucumbers apparently, so perhaps we should outlaw green vegetables too because they make schools dangerous places.

Maybe we should remove doors from schools, because little fingers get trapped sometimes, and then take down the windows because glass breaks. Maybe the desks, chairs and walls are lethal too, so we should opt for round walls and arched doorways - best of all, no walls and ceilings ...

I'm sure I've missed out some obvious school-related hazards here. What next? Glue, scissors? A ban on pencils because they can be sharpened to a point? The ultimate in school safety, of course, would be to ban school altogether. I'm sure the Taliban would approve.

*The Schoolwear Association

If You Give Me Two Options ...

Nazia, refugee from Swat, now residing in Canada, "If you give me two options: to be sick or to be killed," she says, "then for sure I will choose not to die."

Tor_Khan تور خان

A Song For Peace

Pa Pekhawar Ke Parhar Ma Jorawa, La Da Kabul Parhar Warghaley Na De (Don’t Wound Peshawar as the Wound of Kabul Has Not Yet Healed)

In the face of the reality of the Pashtoon plight today, the song serves as both a lament and an appeal. When I sit and listen to the words, away from the distractions around me, the power of the message stirs me to the core.

The song is sung by Hashmat Sahar and penned by Subhan Abid, a Dubai-based driver who hails from Darga, Malakand Agency.

Tor_Khan تور خان

The Beast Within

What you have here is a BBC report on the spread of Taliban influence in Pakhtunkhwa suggesting that only 38% of NWFP and FATA areas is under government control.

The immediate reaction to this when it was put out was one of vehement denial by President Asif Ali Zardari who was in London meeting with PM Gordon Brown negotiating an aid package.

The BBC continues, asking:

Is the Pakistan army serious in its objectives?

There have been a lot of questions raised about the commitment of the Pakistan's security establishment. In particular, the role of the country's powerful but shadowy Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has been the subject of much debate.

Most of it is focused on the agency's relationship with the Taleban. The Taleban were very much a creation of the ISI as part of the army's doctrine of 'strategic depth'.

This doctrine saw Afghanistan as a friendly satellite that would give Pakistani forces geographic strategic depth in case of war with its perennial rival India and its much more powerful military.

The army also saw the Taleban as an instrument in Pakistan becoming a player in the new great game for energy resources in Central Asia. While post 9/11, the country ostensibly threw in its lot with the US, many believe the army and the ISI continue to secretly support the Taleban.

While all Pakistani authorities deny this on the record, many senior security personnel have admitted some support to the Taleban. They point to the growing influence of India in Afghanistan, and say Pakistan cannot allow this 'encirclement' as it directly imparts on its national security.

I should add, that it was the President's late wife, Benazir Bhutto who in her tenure as PM gave the initial green light to the Taliban when they came prominence in Afghanistan back in 1994. Denial or irony?

Exodus

"This is war", President Asif Ali Zardari, Washington, May 2009

I have family who have never been outside Swat their entire lives, I can't imagine the difficulty that they must be going through. Last night I heard that the situation in Swat has descended into panic. Family homes have been destroyed by military shelling, making even shelter in houses unsafe. During non-curfew reprieves, they have begun to leave - by car, bus, pick-up; even walking.

Refugees

Latest report - most are headed to seek refuge in Peshawar, Swabi or are en route to Karachi. People arriving in camps are being held there - they need to be issued IDs because of escaping Taliban. The displacement has split up families, and the stories of Taliban atrocities are still seeping out of the valley. Again I cannot imagine the misery of what it must be like to abandon your home and flee for safety - but this is about individuals trying to hang on to their lives, and their families. I have never been in that situation, but that I have uncles, aunts and cousins who are on the move and that I get to hear this and their stories, makes me feel all the more responsible. My father called me up last night advising me not to travel this summer. The plans for a big family gathering in Swat are now in a state of confusion.

I am distraught. My wife was talking to family yesterday and there is a strong feeling that the situation was allowed to deteriorate - the common citation, as I've mentioned before, is that there has always been covert support directed towards the Taliban by government agencies and that a more sinister political game is being played out to the detriment of the Pashtoons.

Pashtoons have suffered so much, whether it has been the continuing war in Afghanistan, poverty, illiteracy, lack of adequate housing and health care and massive displacements of people. Ultimately the Swati Pashtoons are not the beneficiaries. Please pray for us and pray for peace in our Watan at this difficult time.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Notice Something?

1. The mad boxer shot a quick, gloved jab at the jaw of his dizzy opponent.

2. The July sun caused a fragment of black pine wax to ooze on the velvet quilt.

3. A quart jar of oil mixed with zinc oxide makes a very bright paint.

4. Whenever the black fox jumped the squirrel gazed suspiciously.

5. Do you know that Lorenzo called off his trip to visit Mexico City just because they told him the conquistadores were gone?

... verses from a distance ...

In my trawl through blogs of interest, I came across Mariam Jaan who has written an impressive collection of poems on Pashtoon/Afghan related issues. She captures the pride and the passion of what it is to be Pashtoon, looking at difficult contemporary issues and past nostalgia. I detect a printed anthology about to happen soon, InshAllah.

I have a couple of favourites, so I'd like to share a moment of her brilliance. The message of course, is central to the art.

"A Pashtun" by Mariam Jaan

When a Westerner thinks of a Pashtun, a terrorist is all they see
They have no idea of how romantic and chivalrous he can be

If you were to search all the world you will never be able to find
A man whose guests are treated so honorably and so kind

A Pashtun is a warrior, a poet, a lover, a politician all rolled into one
They have such soft hearts despite carrying around a loaded gun

No one loves to see the beauty in life more than Pashtun males do
For the sake of love there is no torment he won't gladly suffer through

He is proud of his history and remembers every hero's name
And he would rather sacrifice his life than live a life of shame

Whether gazing at his beloved, a beautiful flower or a starry night
His honor is on his mind and for that he's always ready to fight

Thank you Mariam Jaan, for allowing me to share.  تور خان

"Peace" in Pieces

The Swat peace accord looks like it is now in tatters. Whilst on a visit to the US, President Asif Ali Zardari said that Pakistan wanted to "eliminate the militants ... this is an offensive - this is war." Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani reaffirmed the intention to "eliminate militants and terrorists" from Swat. Contrast this with a recent statement from the same government when it claimed that the Taliban was no threat - it is amazing what a trip to Washington can do for a country.

Mass Exodus Following Fractured Peace

I spoke with a cousin two days back and army shelling is happening around the villages that we are connected to in lower Swat. The exodus has begun ...

From Al Jazeera English:

A humanitarian crisis is looming as hundreds of thousands of civilians flee fighting between the Taliban and government troops in the Pakistan's northwest. Officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said that about half a million people have been displaced by the fighting in the Swat valley in the last few days. Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman for the UNCHR, told Al Jazeera that they had witnessed a "great many families arriving from Swat. I was in one of three refugee camps that the UNHRC has helped set up and people were arriving on trucks, rickshaws, cars, buses - any way that they can travel - and they were arriving very, very distressed," she said.

The latest exodus brings the number of people displaced in the region by sustained violence over the last few months to a million, UNHCR officials said.

From the BBC:

As jets and helicopters pounded targets in the valley, the UN said it was threatening to become one of the world's biggest displacement crises.

A full-scale offensive began on Friday, with militant strongholds hit from the air and troops conducting operations on the ground.Despite now abandoned attempts to secure a peace deal in and around Swat, the area - close to the border with Afghanistan - has long been riven by tensions. Some 550,000 people had already been displaced before the current crisis, said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Consider the u-turn heres in terms of the Pakistan government's response to the rise of the Taliban. When the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan, the Pakistan government was one of three countries that recognised them. When the militants took power in Swat, the Pakistan government handed them a peace deal. And now?

From the BBC:

Abdul Hai Kakar from the BBC's Urdu service in Peshawar reports: I interviewed a large number of refugees in Swabi, but I did not meet a single person who actually saw the army and the Taleban as members of opposing camps. Instead, I heard, they were "two sides of the same coin".

"The Pakistani army has hurt us badly - but while they have killed civilians, I swear I haven't seen a single shell directed at the Taleban," says Shahdad Khan, a refugee sheltering at a camp in Swabi's Shave Ada area.

The Taleban captured our area and... threatened local people. But that wasn't as bad as the shelling by the army.

Nasir Ali, displaced high-school student

Others question the Pakistani military's stated commitment to "eliminating" the Taleban. "The army brought the Taleban to our area! It's politics. The Taleban and the army are brothers."

Blood Stones

Diamonds are Forever

Diamonds are Forever so the James Bond film went. Indeed even before that Diamonds, apparently were, a Girl's Best Friend. But it is the West African diamond trade as exemplified in the film Blood Diamond that brings a whole new dimension to the real values attached to these precious stones.

The film showed - and many had claimed before the issue was really taken public - that diamonds were being used to contribute to human rights abuses through exploitation and torture and financing the civil unrest through the activities in African conflict zones. This is a contemporary tale of enslavement, human violence and brutal exploitation and is a remarkable film, bringing home to the audience how simple folk with very normal agendas are dragged into the conflicts around them. When people fear for their children, when they fear for their lives, extreme things can happen. The film makes the suggestion that diamond traders in far away places know exactly about the actions of War Lords operating in Africa and the human issues at steak. The viewer is left with a hanging thought - the continuing trade of blood diamonds serves to keep pockets within Africa in a state of lawlessness and that ultimately we have a moral duty to ensure that diamonds sold for thousands in Europe and the US have not at some point been mined by children, amputees or torture victims for little or no pay.

It's a powerful statement - there are diamond traders, jewellers and people with money in elite European and American circles literally wearing the blood and sweat of exploited Africans, around their necks.

Emerald City/Gemstone Graveyards

Closer to home, the valleys of Swat in Pakistan and Panjshir in Afghanistan hold amongst the biggest deposits of precious stones in the world (check out the map above). In particular, Emeralds. My mother relates a familiar story from her childhood of how foreigners would descend on the emerald mines in Swat, pay a pittance to the miners (often minors) and leave with pockets full of gems. Even at that time - the British Raj was drawing to its close and the emergent state of Pakistan had just come together - the international gem trade had its eye on Swat. It is, by all accounts, a tale of exploitation.

Fast forward to today. When I take a look at Swat's emerald trade - the parallels with Africa are disturbing - the Emerald mines are now almost totally in the hands of the Taliban, who are engaged in their own reign of fear and repression. In a twist that is a classic case of déjà vu - the emeralds of Swat, mined by the locals are being used to finance activities that do not benefit them. There are buyers out there, in far away places, who marvel at the crystal green beauty. Except take a little look closer, and what you may see, is the colour of blood.

Masked Identity 2: Incognito in a Second Life

Behind the Mask

In my previous posting, I wrote that I was able to get beyond the mask without feeling that I need to get behind it. That said, there are times, when masks ARE very much divisive. I'm not talking about face coverings necessarily. A mask of untruths, never helps. Speaking on the phone, is only a partial conversation when you can't actually read the expressions of the other speaker. The written word is particularly notorious - masking out so many of the signals we get in a face-to-face communication situation. So much of what is sometimes meant can be left out, the danger being that we get a partial message that somehow becomes an official statement because it is written. And then there are social chat forums, like Second Life.

An Avatar in a Second Life

In Vedic philosophical traditions, an avatar is said to be an incarnation of a transmigrated soul. In other words, your alternative self (from the one that is or was). In the cyber-world, this usually means your online guise. In Second Life, your avatar can be created from a set of characteristics - you can define facial features, body type - dress style, gestures etc. Sounds like fun maybe, but scratch beyond the superficiality of it, then it is perhaps the ultimate in a communication behind a mask. I need convincing that it is actually healthy.

I've drifted away from the novelty that IRC chatrooms once held. Many internet providers won't go there anyway since chat rooms have fallen into a kind of disrepute for being associated with the darker corners of the internet. On a positive, I once did have a really interesting conversation with someone in Mexico City when we stumbled upon a chance meeting in a chatroom, but often I've found that lots of the 20-30 something chatrooms are where insults are traded and where you're bound to stumble across a nut. Maybe I should try a forum for gardeners*.

And maybe perhaps my opinions on Second Life are equally onesided. I suspect so. My avatar, Tor Nandahar**, is actually a cool guy, but he's picky. Really, having done the test drive, having walked the walk, having been patient and having given myself time to watch and learn, I'm not all that enamoured - I'm not speaking about the technology here, which I think has its plusses - but with the frustration of being in a public forum where all I want to do is "speak" with a couple of interesting people - fickle encounters do not please. In anycase, most folk in their artificially beautified form look a little too perfect (albeit in a surreal animated world) to be all that real anyway.

There are positives - island communities where beautiful avatars live in bliss and where people are there by invitation only. There are instances of educational use of Second Life, so I tried to float into an ESL forum. I thought it might be fun, but I found a strangely haunting Robinson Crusoe experience where I was the only one on the island. I was able to read the notices, but I did not find another soul there. The game-play aspects are interesting. Avatars can fly and you can earn Second Life credits (Linden Dollars) to spend. You can build your own islands have have your friends over to party.

Would I recommend? As a Virtual Learning Environment, maybe. Second Life is a helpful way to connect people from distant places, but only if the perfect cosmetic self is as important as having a meaningful human interaction.

* I miss my garden, and whilst I found some really helpful tips on USENET forums, I'm not sure most gardeners would not bother too much with beautified fantasies of themselves in a forum like Second Life
** based on my nom de plume, Tor_Khan

Masked Identity 1: Beyond the Mask

Jack, So Simple

Jack Straw once created a ripple of controversy when he kicked up a fuss about not being able to see the people he was talking to. This is a familiar frustration when people are speaking on the phone, but Jack Straw was not talking about that. He wasn't talking about the quality of his eye-glasses or even about the lighting in his office. He was, as we all know now, speaking about trying to get behind the what he felt was a communication barrier that stood between him and a particular group of female constituents - that is, behind the veil of his Muslim audience. To get behind the mask - so to speak.

Straw had no time for mystery. His solution? Drop the veil to make it easier for him to see who he was speaking to.

He would probably have a difficult time here in the Khaleej where in the heart of the Muslim world, black veils are aplenty and face coverings are fairly normal. How would he read the signals? Yes - no - excuse me - sorry, ahem - a mixture of awkwardness, embarassment and irritation.

A Mask of Mystery

The debate around the extent to which the veil should be applied continues though what I will say is that, overall, these things don't really bother me, in the way they do Mr Straw. One is either conditioned or they get used to it, so no surprises. I was recently working at a senior level in a school with an all-female staff here in the UAE. All wore the customary Abaya and I was concious that the face-veil was observed by some because of my presence. Often, when I had a meeting with the staff, they would adjust their sheilas when they heard me approaching. My duty was to stand back, knock and then wait to be invited in to their offices or classrooms.

It isn't necessarily easy for somebody in my shoes, but I accept that essentially, we are talking about real people in real situations - my emergent Arabic, the cultural norms (that included the socially accepted gender divide here in the Muslim world) and face veils have never really gotten in way - if you want to be understood, if you try to understand, if there is the will - you can often find a way.

Wordle Art

Old hat for some, and even though I've come across this before, I've only just tested out the wonders of Wordle. It's a kind of WordArt. In this case, Wordle has been designed to link to randomised words from this blog. Pretty neat, n'est ce pas?