Oppenheim Arts & Letters

Speaking of Journalists - Iran

 

Mediagrr19 posting Goodman, Amy.  "Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Abadi joins devense team of Roxanna Saberi.  Democracy Now 1 of 2."  YouTube, April 30, 2009:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5rpznVjTHQ - Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucsIja7oLMA.

Always, we get the outside of the story, the outrageous part, the visible, the public, and the highly promoted, but it takes some other effort to get under the hood, open up the valve cover, and scope the pistons and sample the fuel and gauge the power of the thing.

Reading about Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani just a few hours ago, I was struck by the depth of the intellectual organization and institutional array in the contemporary Iranian governing complex.  No one overlooks the former President of Iran in any orientation to political expression or press freedom in the state.  However, there are other nuts and bolts. 

Start with Rafsanjani's participation on the Assembly of Experts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_of_Experts 

Move on to the Expediency Discernment Council: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/edc.htm 

Move on to the rants, for example: Farhat Quam Maquami's diatribe that datelined May 30, 2005 at Iranian.com, starts this way, "The multifaceted Rafsanjani family has converted Iranian wealth into billions-dollar investments in the United States, Canada and Europe," before spinning around to "Islamic Republic is a trade name, a slogan used for propaganda, and an empty phrase which has been coined to subjugate people who believe in Islam all over the world. It is a strange dictatorship, baptized in blood baths and terror established in 1979. It is ironical that the system which murdered many as "Corrupt on Earth" and "Warrior against God" has become the symbol of corruption and socioeconomic oppression." Source: http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2005/May/Rafsanjani/index.html

Now here's a trick: corroborate the claims online. 

Try.

Bureaucracies and their investigators--auditors, if you will--have a term for burrowing through information translucence and opacity toward a believable and trustworty, valid and reliable, clarity: "peeling back the onion."

One may see the outside of a problem but getting into its workings requires a different sort of sight and illumination. 

If a state were a poem, one would want to gather in its history, themes, characters, allusions, and references; one would want its contemporaries gathered on the same table, opened to pages referencing similar things. 

Decent lighting, a highlighter, and a cup of coffee wouldn't hurt: welcome to the equivalent of an endless Ph.Dville.

Good poets know good readers will discern the moving parts of their poem, so they plant each word and phrase carefuly, knowing, hoping, expecting the inclined to look over the form and shape of the work before laying it out, line linked to line linked to former works linked to competitions between composers, and from that knowing how the poem works, how its ambiguities intrigue, and knowing also how to pass the knowledge of it down to another generation of readers.

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Pakistan - Does No One Love a Journalist?

"On Wednesday, the military harassed and fired on reporters covering its operations in the Buner Valley, about 65 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Islamabad, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). For weeks, local journalists have told CPJ, the Taliban have openly and repeatedly threatened anyone who reports critically about Taliban rule." [1]

I used to whine to my parents: "The freedom to agree is no freedom at all!"

One has come to expect a certain level of animosity from Islamists, but here's a note on the Pakistani government's interest in what were once "ink stained wretches" (now we're merely wretches with carpal tunnel syndrome):

"In Peshawar, Dilawar Jan, the correspondent for the English-language daily The News, was detained overnight by the government intelligence agencies on Tuesday. The paper said Jan was picked up and questioned about the sources for a report on the military's operations in Dir that he wrote for The News on Monday." [1]

I've commented on this topic with regard to the press in Somalia during the early days of the former Transitional Federal Government: if you're an Islamist, the press is not your friend; if you are up to your elbows in crime, the press is not your friend; if you have integrity and are pursuing a crime and harboring information to do it, the press is not your friend.  [2]

Well, maybe a little in that last case.

Journalists may play ball to get information and to be good eggs along the way.

Classic reading in the field (for those who like to look away from an event by reading about some facet of it): Knightly, Phillip.  The First Casualty: From the Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker.  New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. 

The saw: "The first casualty of war is truth."

The truth: the first casualties of war may include those who profess to witness it first hand (so far).

Reference

Dietz, Bob.  "Briefing: Pakistani journalists face Taliban, military threats."  Committee to Protect Journalists, April 30, 2009: http://cpj.org/blog/2009/04/briefing-pakistani-journalists-face-taliban-and-mi.php

Oppenheim, James S.  "Journalism in Somalia - Very Simple."  Oppenheim Arts & Letters, October 18, 2007: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2007/10/journalism-in-s.html

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Search and Be Found

TEDTalksDirector. "Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?" YouTube, January 6, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

What's going on: folks in the modelmayhem.com community, a part of model-photographer culture and the glamour photography subculture in general, post these items for conversation.

Obviously, whether collectively or inidividually--always, ultimately, individually--I / we / they have strong feelings about art, ideas, expression, perception, the whole part of being human once one has a modicum of health, shelter, and sustenance. In fact, whatever the body's acute and other needs may be, even when they're not completely squared away, we're more "mind" and calculation, feeling, and learning than we are physically consuming and excreting machines, although goodness knows we eat through the world and create quite the pile of crap in our wake.

Nonetheless, no longer restricted to the lecture on campus, the lecture on the Internet gives all the best seat in one's own house.

In the metaphysics of the library, one may wake to realize one's one's books have chosen him for reading as much as he may have agreed to the bargain.

Here on the web, we go looking . . . for something beyond our basic needs -- and here too, perhaps, it finds us.

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Decor in Mindspace

Source: Gooz. "Fractal Zoom Mandelbrot Corner." YouTube, November 12, 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_GBwuYuOOs

That was then (2006).

This is now (2009):

Source: Maxmanesh. "Neon Lights". YouTube, April 30, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZsh7iphC80

My real environment has in it about eight tons of books and magazines, every single one of them a place to invest and perhaps refresh the mind.

There's also a small home theater--a station of the heart--and it would really be hot if I could crank it up: Onkyo-driven surround sound 7.1, an audio experience that's as real as real gets, but it's going to take a detached house with a dedicated room (soundproofed, acoustically balanced) to get the media as the studio geeks intended.

Then there's this platform, the computer with a slow graphic arts-oriented monitor.  Still, with a click one flies the mind from Pakistan, poverty, war, and refugees to high fidelity music and the latest in fine art fractals.

Highest rated today along the "fractal" search at YouTube (click--it's a treat):

Source: WhisperoftheGarden. "Order in the Chaos - Synchronicity through Fractals" YouTube, March 30, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuyRCfhCZT0

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Pakistan's New Mettle - A Test

Tweedie, Penny. "Pakistan's refugee crisis." Reuters, April 30, 2009: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=102751&newsChannel=worldNews

Reuters correspondent Deborah Lutterbeck has also posted a video on the service's web site--"Pakistan's battle for control": http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=102883&videoChannel=1

Two sides of the state's sword may be made more plain by both videos.

Given the military tactics pursued by the Pakistani Army, the cost to civilians in the hot zones is high in terms both of death (even one is always too much) and internal displacement, a function of the Islamic Small Wars across the board: civilians bear the brunt of the violence and that from both sides wherever this manner of conflict has errupted. 

On the better side of the sword, Pakistan's one-million strong military may be waking up to its altered conflict-perception state.

The army has for decades leveraged, promoted, and pandered to a popular xenophobia that has made outsized enemies of Israel, India, the United States and, so I like to add, Danish cartoonists. At the same time, it has preserved itself from the Islamist agenda, partnered with the United States in military exercise and training, and obtained defense funding on the basis of its ability and willingness to align with Washington in the "war on terror."

In essence, Pakistan has gotten away with playing both sides of the street, accommodating Al Qaeda and the Taleban in their mountain redoubts, capitulating to both their reprise of 7th Century shari'a as well as extension of a conservative Arab expansion pursued through assassination, the conveyance of bombs on two legs, and field warfare.

Musharraf may have seen that the days of sustaining this mode of duplicitous behavior had to come to an end: the way forward could not be the way backward.

That day has come.

Ceding Waziristan to a Taleban out-of-the-shadows government has in no way stalled the Islamist effort to gather in more countryside.

This month, the world will see whether Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani have the vision and resolve to not only battle back the Taleban from Buner but also to cast off the ropes from Pakistan's decades-old politics as usual and its outdated rivalries.

Poet Iqbal and politician Jinnah had in mind a Muslim majority state, a simple and comparatively secular districting to move Muslims out of the shadow of Hindu India. At the time, that seemed the way toward building a modern state, not a war torn backwater defined by its hosting a core struggle within Islam itself.

For more thoughts on Pakistan's war with the Taleban:

Lodhi, Maleeha. "The retreat of Jinnah's Pakistan." The International News, April 22, 2009: http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=173613

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Pakistan - Progress Begins in Buner

"I warn them to vacate the area. We are not going to spare them," he told reporters. "Action will be taken if anyone tries to block our efforts to re-establish writ of the government in Buner and other areas," he said. [1]

"Security forces on Tuesday extended an offensive against Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan to Buner district, around 100 km (60 miles) north of the capital Islamabad." [2]

From polio vaccine to power plants, modernity comprises a global force. 

God knows across the global village that few villages, if any, remain self-contained and capable of feeding themselves, much less attending to the myriad needs of their people.

We humans have turned out a gregarious species.

We rely, every single one of the billions of us, on the cleverness, greed, and kindness of strangers.

That and perhaps prayer as well.

Be that as it may, Pakistan, after treating with the Taleban in Swat and suffering their incursion into Buner, seems finally to have gotten the message: however one may feel about Allah, also Christians and Jews, also America, Denmark, and Israel, also shari'a, also democracy and "rule of law" and "writ of government", the start of our days, accompanied by prayer or not, begins with moving freight: appliances, food, medicine, textiles, tools--the contributing elements to systems for living.

Most people aren't out for blood at daybreak or even much interested in imposing their will on others--that turns out a lot of work--reckless work too--doesn't it?

We wake in the morning to be helpful to someone else, close or distant, familiar or strange.

Reference

1. "Pakistan warns Taliban to quit Buner or face action."  Calgary Herald, April 28, 2009: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Pakistan+warns+Taliban+quit+Buner+face+action/1541710/story.html

2. Haider, Seeshan and Simon Cameron-Moore.  "Pakistan begins offensive against Taliban in Buner."  AlertNet, April 28, 2009: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL476761.htm

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Question Mark - Pakistan's Resolve

"Several thousand people began fleeing Lower Dir, residents said, a day after security forces using artillery and helicopter gunships swung into action after the militants' ambush."

and

"The more they carry out operations the more we will expand across Pakistan," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said."

Khan, Junaid. "Radical cleric breaks off talks in Pakistan's Swat." April 27, 2009: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL21802620090427?feedType=nl&feedName=usmorningdigest

Legg, Sonia. "Pakistan's anti-Taliban offensive." Reuters, April 26, 2009: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=102670&newsChannel=worldNews

"Initially founded on quasi-socialist lines, the organization now maintains liberal, progressive and secular stances on many political and social issues, but its support to military dictators has tarnished its image."

Wikipedia: "Muttahida Qaumi Movement": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muttahida_Qaumi_Movement

Which I mention because earlier today, "LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain condemned the Taliban militants for stopping lawyers and judges from their professional duties in Swat, Shangla and Buner.

"Speaking to Supreme Court Bar Association president Ali Ahmed Kurd on phone from London, Altaf said that 450 lawyers were barred to work by Taliban after enforcement of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Swat."

The International News. "Altaf phones Kurd." April, 27, 2009: http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=76073

After much struggle with former general and president Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's public has only comparatively recently gotten a sense both for voting and the work of lawyers or "rule of law", which in contemporary, fulfilling, and productive life may depart from the feudal and sadistic tenets of the Islamist's banner shari'a.

Small wars, no less than the smallest of cancers, need to be taken seriously, and with attempts at accommodation in Swat Valley and the still awaited departure of militant troops from Buner, Pakistan has gotten a good look at what's come out of the mountain laboratory.

Dad always said at the ping-pong table: "Don't get cocky."

One may pass that along to Pakistan's administration and military.

We'll see more this week as regards the further erosion of hesitation on the military's part as regards its mission to neutralize Pakistan's most volatile internal threat to peace, prosperity, and most beloved of all, tranquility and its own political freedom.

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Afghanistan - Winnable

Most military leaders here prefer working with the Afghans to the Iraqis. The Afghans are warm and welcoming. They detest the insurgents and root for American success. “The Afghans have treated you as friends, allies and liberators from the very beginning,” says Afghanistan’s defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak.

Source: Brooks, David.  "The Winnable War."  The New York Times, April 26, 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/opinion/27brooks.html?_r=1

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Pakistan - Dividing Loyalties

"Aamir said that former NWFP governor Lt-Gen (retd) Iftikhar Hussain Shah had suggested during the early days of the 9/11 that 23 new battalions of the Frontier Constabulary should be raised to operate in the tribal areas, but his proposal was ignored and instead the Army troops were sent there for operations. It so happens that banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad and almost all prominent Taliban stalwarts in Swat and Buner, including Maulana Fazlullah, had been the pupils of Aamirís father at his religious seminary in Panjpir. His father, who was an eminent religious scholar, used to give Darse Quran for decades and has a huge number of his followers."

Source: Butt, Tariq.  "Major Aamir turns down Zardari’s offer."  The International News, April 25, 2009: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=174148

Microscopy starts not with glass and resolution but rather with illumination--then, with the subject appropriately lighted, optical magnication knows only the limits of light.

" . . . including Maulana Fazlullah, had been the pupils of Aamiri's father . . . ."

What we hear and read are only half of any message or signal; how we hear and read--there's a spacious mansion for scholars.

Childhood friends.  Loyalties.  A common induction into how the world works or should.

The West, among others, says, "Finish."

Pakistan says, "I'm not sure and don't know how."

Certain dreams and identities have primacy in attitude-behavior correspondence.  There are beliefs of which we are so certain so soon that they wear on their shoulders our later perceptions and desires, and they give them wings.

What, really, did Captain Ahab have in mind with so epic an obsession as Moby Dick?

No one can put a price on the dreamed up glory of a magnificent adventure--the best the crew may do is strive to survive it.

The lucky who do take a lesson.

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Pakistan's Road Warriors' War

Remember: The warfare that makes the news may not be the warfare that makes the war.

This unusual rant of a lead about inaction on the part of Pakistan's Frontier Corps has shown up in Friday's The Frontier Post:

QUETTA: No military operation is underway in any part of Balochistan as Frontier Corps personnel are deployed only for protecting national installations in Sui town of Dera Bugti district, an FC press release issued here from FCHQ Balochistan quoting its spokesman said. The press release further said that militants are causing damages to private properties and farms of peaceful tribesmen following which they claim responsibility of the damages . . . . It said that there is not a single gunship helicopter in Balochistan, and termed the propaganda of operation as lie and based on malafide which is tantamount to mislead peaceful Baloch tribesmen who want to pass normal life in the province.

Source: The Frontier Post. "No military operation in Balochistan: FC F.P. Report." April 24, 2009: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ts&nid=555

I think the reporter unclear about what is not happening; however, what may be happening comes through plainly enough: " . . . militants are causing damages to private properties and farms of peaceful tribesmen . . . ."

Four-to-the-floor and a dirt track. Road warriors. With a program. One that works too.

We may get the big news--the warfare that makes the news--from Swat Valley and from Buner, but not only is there no reason to believe that Islamist forces have been confined to those districts, there is every reason to believe they've taken a page from Shabaab in Somalia and know the pleasures of a hard ride to other parts of the country.

Quetta's about 700 miles from Mingora in Swat, and, evidently, the Taleban have been busy in that area while the Frontier Corps remain perhaps less visible than locals would like and, probably, would  appreciate as well.

Note: travel is not necessary where infiltration has been accomplished.

So far, Pakistan's military has waged at best a defensive or reactive war.  It's citizens and paramilitary have taken hits--many deaths--in essentially soft or under-defended circumstances.  Most recently, they have continued to suffer deeply, grievously, in conditions that were to have been bound by treaty.  As long as the military's terms approximate "be hit and hit back", there will be no peace for Pakistan, for that is a game that goes on a long time.

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