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domain: law


One Vision Housing has joined a national campaign that is bringing together people and organisations from across the country to take a stand against anti-social behaviour and make communities safer.
As an award-winning housing provider across Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire, One Vision Housing has a series of events planned throughout the week to mark the launch of the UK’s first official ASB Awareness Week.
Running from Monday July 19 – Sunday 25, ASB Awareness Week – Making Communities Safer aims to encourage communities to take a stand against ASB and highlight the options available to those facing it.
The week of action is bringing together people and organisations from across the country to take a stand and work together to make communities safer.
Organised by community safety specialists Resolve, ASB Awareness Week is being backed by the Home Office, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Local Government Association (LGA), National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the National Fire Chiefs’ Council (NFCC).
There will be a series of community safety projects carried out to help customers with safety and security, welfare and benefits advice, and neighbourhood clean-ups.
We will be visiting the following locations during the week and providing an additional advice line service on Tuesday for customers to report any ASB concerns online or over the phone.
|Monday 19th July
|Radstock Road – L6 Botanic Road – L7
|Community day of action
|Tuesday 20th July
||Over the phone and online
||ASB advice line
|Wednesday 21st July
||Bianca Street L20
||Green space clean-up day
|Thursday 22nd July
||Garden View L20
||Community day of action
|Friday 23rd July
||Fleets Lane WA9
||Community day of action
Ian Mitchell, Managing Director for One Vision Housing said:
“At One Vision Housing we are committed to providing safe and secure neighbourhoods for our customers. During ASB Awareness Week we hope to showcase the work of our dedicated Community Safety Team, whilst also providing our customers with additional ASB support and advice throughout the week. By partnering with Resolve to tackle ASB in our neighbourhoods, we hope to improve the lives of our residents and make the areas in which they live better, too.”
Furthermore, we are delighted to announce that our Community Safety Officer William Merritt has been nominated for Resolve UK’s ‘Practitioner of the Year Award’. This award showcases employees that have demonstrated exceptional commitment to delivering change and inspiring others. This nomination demonstrates our ongoing commitment to creating safe and secure neighbourhoods.
Rebecca Bryant OBE, chief executive of Resolve, said:
“We need to change the way we think about ASB. It is not low-level crime. It devastates the lives of victims and communities and can be a precursor to more serious crime.
“As the nation begins to recover from the impact of the pandemic and our society and economy celebrates the start of return to normal life, it is important that the challenge of ASB continues to be given the priority it needs nationally and locally so that people feel safe in their homes and communities.
“We are delighted to have One Vision Housing involved in this hugely important and successful campaign.
“It is vital to develop partnership approaches across communities to deal with the growing challenges around ASB.
“Everyone has the right to feel safe in their home and community.”
For more information visit www.resolveuk.org.uk/asbawarenessweek


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Toronto, Oct 24 (Canadian-Media): Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) showcases the exhibition, 'Egyptian Mummies: Ancient Lives & New Discoveries' is running through Sept 19 2020 to March 21, 2021 in Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall, Level B2, ROM reports said.
Royal Ontario Museum. Image credit: Wikipedia
Utilizing the latest technologies combining CT scans, digital visualizations and the latest research, the exhibition 'Egyptian Mummies: Ancient Lives. New Discoveries' uncovers the secrets of six mummified individuals, including a priest’s daughter, a temple singer and a young child from the British Museum spanning 900 BCE to CE 180.
Unique insights into these mummies is provided by exploring how these people lived along the Nile and what happened to them after they died. Each mummy has a story to tell.
#CanadianMuseumOfHistory, #Ottawa; #CanadianWarMuseum; #RickHansen #VirtualMuseumOfNewFrance; #RickHansenFoundation
Ottawa, Sep 27 (Canadian-Media): Located in the Hull area of Gatineau, Quebec, directly across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canadian Museum of History is a crown corporation established by the Museums Act, to oversee the operations of three museums: the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian War Museum and the Virtual Museum of New France, www.historymuseum.ca reports said.
Canadian Museum of History. Image credit: Website
The corporation is mandated to enhance Canadians’ knowledge, awareness of world history and cultures, understanding and appreciation of events, experiences, people and objects that have shaped Canada’s history and identity.
One of the special exhibitions of the Canadian Museum of History which are open Sep 2020 through Jan 31, 2021 is a new special display 'Highlights From the Rick Hansen Man In Motion World Tour Collection' which features 18 iconic objects documenting the 26-month, 40,000-kilometre wheelchair marathon around the world taken by Canadian marathon, Hansen in 1985 with a goal to promote accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities, which Hansen generously donated to the Canadian Museum of History at a live virtual event in May 2020.
Photo credit: Rick Hansen Foundation
Dedicated to raising awareness, changing attitudes, helping create accessible spaces, and liberating the potential of people with disabilities, Hansen and the Foundation, for more than three decades have been dedicated to creating a world that is accessible and inclusive for all, by removing barriers for people with disabilities.
Through his ongoing work as Founder of the Rick Hansen Foundation, Rick Hansen’s dream of creating a world without barriers continues.
Please visit the Rick Hansen Foundation website to learn more about the great work being done to build a more accessible world.
#Vancouver; #B.C., #ChineseCanadianMuseum; #ASeatAtTheTable
Vancouver (B.C.), Chinese Canadian Museum’s temporary exhibit, 'A Seat at the Table' in Vancouver Chinatown is accessible to visitors for free starting Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020, media reports said.
Chinese Canadian Museum. Image credit: Flickr
Located at the Hon Hsing Athletic Club, 27 East Pender St., the exhibit 'A Seat at the Table' is open Friday until Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will run through 2021.
“People told us they wanted the Chinese Canadian Museum to showcase Chinese Canadian history, past and present, in the places where it happened,” said Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture in a news release. “This exhibit embodies that vision by telling the stories of the people who helped build British Columbia and offers a way for British Columbians to add their stories.”
The temporary exhibit explores the history of Chinese immigration and communities through individual narratives and opportunities to promote story sharing and features interactive story panels, videos and audio to provide snapshots from Chinese Canadians’ lives.
The exhibit also showcases how Chinese migrants and their descendants have found ways to earn a living, challenge systemic racism, connect with others, survive and thrive through hope and resilience.
“The knowledge sharing that has taken place between individuals, community groups, academics and museum professionals for the production of A Seat at the Table project is exceptional and will resonate with diverse audiences who will be able to see themselves in the stories," said Viviane Gosselin, curator, Museum of Vancouver in the news release.
Grace Wong, chair, Chinese Canadian Museum said in the news release that the exhibit shows how the Museum will share the historical contributions of Chinese Canadians and their continued role in the fabric of British Columbia and Canada.
With so much history and culture, Vancouver offers affordable opportunities for people to learn more about the lives and experiences of the Chinese Canadians who shaped our city, said Kennedy Stewart, mayor, City of Vancouver in the news release.
The exhibition facilitates visitors to add their personal story to the collection on camera, through in-person interviews, in writing or by placing a marker on a map.
These stories will become part of the Chinese Canadian Museum’s collection and as the exhibition travels throughout the province, it will continue to gather stories from each location throughout the province.
The project, 'A Seat at the Table' from the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC, in collaboration with the Museum of Vancouver and the University of British Columbia, is made possible through the B.C. government’s $1-million grant to the City of Vancouver to support further planning for the Chinese Canadian Museum.
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Province and the City of Vancouver to establish the museum and to pursue United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site Designation for Vancouver Chinatown.
The Museum of Vancouver will launch, in October 2020, a larger related exhibit at its own location.
The safety measures put in place at the exhibit by the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC to protect people’s health during the COVID-19 pandemic include provision of hand sanitizers, masks to be worn by staff and patrons, additional signage within the museum to remind visitors to keep a two-metre distance from each other, and maximum attendance of 14 people at a time.
#Winnipeg; #CMHR; #Racism
Winnipeg Aug 5 (Canadian-Media): The interim report of the independent third-party review into allegations of systemic racism and other forms of oppression within the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) has been released by CMHR on Aug 5.
Image credit: Facebook page
"The Board of Trustees welcomes the review’s findings. It is clear many people have been adversely impacted by racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination within the Museum, and we apologize unreservedly,” said Board Chair and Interim CEO Pauline Rafferty. “We are taking immediate and decisive action to build an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory workplace.”
"The report is troubling. It's concerning. It exposes all of the worst things," Pauline Rafferty, the museum's board chair and acting CEO said in an interview Tuesday, CBC News reported.
Systemic racism had been identified in Harris’ report within the Museum which has had a negative physical, emotional and financial impact on employees who are Black, Indigenous or People of Colour. Instances of sexism, heterosexism and homophobia within the organization were also identified in the report.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I apologize that it took a public crisis for the organization to seriously reflect on the issues of systemic racism, homophobia and other forms of oppression,” Rafferty continued. “We need to focus our attention on our hiring practices, our policies and our workplace culture. We will recommit ourselves to the values upon which the Museum was founded, of human dignity and respect, and make this a priority. How we work will be as important as the work itself.”
A Diversity and Inclusion Committee led by Trustee Julie Ja was recently formed by the Board of Trustees. The Museum’s five-year strategic plan to prioritize diversity and inclusion goals and developing metrics to measure progress will also be reviewed by the Board.
“We will create and implement policies and procedures that cover all aspects of the Museum’s work,” added Julie Jai. “We have an opportunity to transform the Museum into a workplace that practices anti-racism and rejects all forms of oppression, including sexism, heterosexism, homophobia and transphobia. With sustained effort, the Museum will emerge much stronger for it.”
The Museum is closed today and tomorrow (August 5 and 6) to provide staff an opportunity to review the report and meet with Laurelle Harris.
the Board of Trustees of the CMHR received on July 31 a report entitled “Rebuilding the Foundation,” which provides an external review into systemic racism and oppression within the Museum.
The Board welcomes the findings and is taking immediate action to implement the five recommendations pertaining to the Board, which are presence of not fewer than one Black person, one Indigenous person and one person who identifies as LGTBQ2+ at all times, in addition to members of additional equity groups at Diversity and Inclusion Committee; thorough analysis of past and future policies for bias and to ensure that board policies promote, and support equity; Anti-racist and anti-oppression education, both by way of self-learning and through scheduled training sessions should be provided to all members of the Board of Trustees; The Board of Trustees set goals for the Chief Executive Officer to promote a culture of equity, inclusion and accountability within the Museum; Chief Executive Officer required to to engage in meaningful community relations with Black, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities, transgender/gender diverse and Two-Spirit communities in particular.
The Board and Museum leadership have also agreed to review the Museum’s five-year strategic plan to prioritize diversity and inclusion goals and developing metrics to measure progress; Supporting a comprehensive external review (phase two) which will expand on the findings of the first phase to provide a framework for long-term action; Launching mandatory sexual harassment training for all managers, staff and volunteers in the coming weeks. This training is to be completed by the end of September 2020; Management reporting annually to the Board through the Diversity and Inclusion committee on action and progress on equity initiatives as well as on any complaints of racism, homophobia, sexual harassment and other forms of oppression;Developing and implementing a new policy to ensure the practice of censoring any Museum content is strictly prohibited; Investing a minimum of $250,000 of the Museum’s 2020-21 budget to support training for all staff and managers at the Museum; and collaborating with staff to support the creation of staff-led groups to provide input on Museum policies, practices and decisions.
Finally, the management is being encouraged by the Board to immediately create a senior role within the Museum focused on diversity and inclusion, review recruitment and hiring practices, including a complete analysis of the Museum’s employment practices in Phase Two, and roll out an institution-wide education and learning plan, including working with staff to redevelop mandatory respectful workplace training.
#Quebec; #MNBAQ; #PabloPicasso; #CelebratingMultifacedHumanBody; #SocialChange
Quebec, Jul 12 (Canadian-Media): Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) announced July 12, in the presence of Quebec's Minister of Culture and Communications, Ms. Nathalie Roy, about the arrival of an exhibition of one of the the most famous and prolific artist in the world, artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), with his masterpieces celebrating the beauty of singular bodies in a unique way, media reports said.
MNBAQ. Image credit: Website
MNBAQ's new exhibition, slated to run from June to September 2021, has been made possible by a contribution of $ 1,000,000 from the Quebec's Ministry of Culture and Communications.
"It is one of our cultural priorities for the Government of Quebec to make accessible to Quebecers works like the masterpieces of Picasso, an artist of genius on a planetary scale, and thus contribute to the influence of the Capitale-Nationale and the MNBAQ, said Roy was visiting the museum on Jul 12.
Designed by the Musée national Picasso-Paris ( France ) from its remarkable collection, in collaboration with the MNBAQ, the exhibition showcase a selection of 77 works, including 45 major paintings, produced between 1895 and 1972.
Image: The painter and the model. Image credit: www.PabloPicasso.org
The exhibition, with its representation of the human body in all its multiplicity from portraits to more allegorical representations, from his classicism to the abstraction both intimate and aesthetic, which had been Picasso's main focus throughout his career, will allow visitors to be moved and be made aware of extraordinary beauty and will put the MNBAQ in the spotlight during the summer season.
“This exhibition will allow the MNBAQ to position itself as an actor of social change, as a vector of well-being, by celebrating bodily diversity" said Enthuses Jean-Luc Murray, Director General of the MNBAQ in the news release.
Seven themes around which the exhibition will be structured are - Portraits , Cubist and postcubist anatomies , Body magic , At the beach , Extreme tension , Monsters , Nudes and disguises - and . It will also include a remarkable set of sculptures which recalls the multidisciplinary dimension of the work of this eternal explorer. Among the masterpieces gathered, we must mention Man with the guitar (1911), L'Acrobate (1930), Figures by the sea (1931), Jacqueline with crossed hands (1954) or Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe after Manet (1960), masterful paintings representative of the best periods of the artist's career.
The Musée national Picasso-Paris, inaugurated in 1985, contains the world's richest collection of works by the artist and covers all its periods.
Picasso's personal collection, which he had assembled during his life by collecting works from his friends (Braque, Matisse, Miró, Derain), from masters he admired (Cézanne, Le Douanier Rousseau, Degas), too was given to the State in 1978 and joined the Picasso museum collection.
Thousands of documents and photographs, which cover all of Picasso's life, help make the Picasso museum the main center of study on the life and work of the artist.
#Quebec; #HistoricalSocieties;#MAMH; #FARR; #TheLibraryandNationalArchivesOfQuebec
Quebec, Jun 20 (Canadian-Media): In recognition of the importance of historic societies in the Laurentians, in Quebec, and develop strategies to ensure their sustainability, a sum of $ 300,000 is granted as part of a sectoral development agreement by Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MAMH), the seven MRCs of the Laurentians, media reports said.
MAMH. Image credit: Twitter handle
The seven MRCs of the Laurentians of Mirabel are the Council of Prefects and Elected Officials of the Laurentides region (CPERL), Culture Laurentides as well the Rivière-du-Nord History Society and the Hautes-Laurentides History and Genealogy Society.
These two historical societies, whose private archives service is approved by Bibliothèques et Archives Nationale du Québec, are responsible for implementing the agreement.
“It is important to preserve history, because it is the memory of a people. I am pleased that the Laurentians are investing in this direction. Keeping track of what has been experienced over the years in the region is invaluable. Besides, I take this opportunity to sincerely thank all the guardians of our heritage, " Andrée Laforest, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in a news release.
The aid granted would facilitate stocking of the situation of private archives in the Laurentians for the conservation and dissemination of this rich regional heritage, to develop coordination between historical societies and heritage organizations.
In addition, small and medium-sized municipalities in the territory who are struggling to manage their archives, preserve and distribute them, would be supported by this initiative.
“Thanks to this agreement, the historical societies and heritage committees of the Laurentians will be able to safeguard the history of the region...to developing a strong identity. By knowing their region better, citizens will be more proud of it and will become better ambassadors to highlight it, " Sylvie D'Amours, Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Minister responsible for the Laurentides region
“Through this agreement...the memory of the eight territories that make up our region, so rich in history and heritage, is preserved for future generations, " said Bruno Laroche , President of the Council of Prefects and Elected Officials of the Laurentides region and co-president of the regional committee for the selection of projects from the Support Fund for Regional Outreach.
“We are delighted with the interest and concrete support thus shown by decision-makers in the region with regard to the history and heritage of our territory. Our two organizations will make every effort to implement this agreement, for the benefit of all historical societies in the Laurentians, " said Benoît N. Legault, President of the Hautes-Laurentides History and Genealogy Society and Henri Prévost, President of the Rivière-du-Nord History Society.
Made salient :
#Quebec; #Museums, #Libraries; # CNESST
Montreal, May 24 (Canadian-Media): Amidst gradual easing of restrictions on gatherings, travel and other activities, Quebec Culture Minister Nathalie Roy announced May 22 at a news conference in Montreal that starting May 29, museums, libraries and drive-in cinemas will be permitted to reopen across the province, media reports said.
Nathalie Roy. Image credit: Twitter handle
ut Quebecers will not be allowed to hold guided tours nor would they be permitted to host vernissages or other events.
Keeping with the social distancing guidelines put out by Quebec's workplace health and safety board, CNESST, the number of people inside at the same time would be limited to enable them to keep a two metre distance from others.
Not all museums would reopen next week some museums take longer to adapt to those guidelines.
The McCord Museum in Montreal will reopen on June 23 and the Stewart Museum on June 25.
The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal will announce its reopening plans next week.
Although announcement of reopening date of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is held off, Nathalie Bondil, director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts said the first exhibit to receive visitors would be the temporary Egyptian mummies installation.
In Quebec City, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) will reopen on June 29.
The MNBAQ's Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibit, which was originally set to close this month, will continue to run until Sept. 7.
The extensive online offering by the Montreal Holocaust Museum's administration to enable people explore history from the comfort of home will continue even after the museum reopens, said spokesperson Sarah Fogg.
The museum, as well as the Montreal Botanical Gardens and planetarium, do not yet have a set date for reopening.
The operation of the libraries across the province, once open, would also be different.
Only a designated area around service counters would be accessible to the public.
The public will neither be able to browse the library's book aisles, nor will they will be able to use library computers.
The CNESST recommends not to touch the returned books for 24 hours.
Work at recording studios will be able to resume June 1 under specific conditions. Only five members of technical crew would be permitted and performers must stay two metres away from one another,.
As far as live performance, concerts or theatre productions are concerned, Public health has not yet given the go-ahead.
Realizing that many artists have lost their livelihood due to non functioning of concert halls, stages and film sets, Deputy Premier Geneviève Guilbault at the news conference said,
"Now is the time more than ever to support our artists, consume our culture."
Ottawa, Mar 13 (Canadian-Media): A message from the National Museums of Canada stated that due to the COVID-19 virus the national museums of Canada have made the decision to close the museums across Canada to visitors and all other groups, effective Saturday, March 14 and until further notice, media reports said.
Although National Museums of Canada regrets the impact of this decision on the users, however, it believes that this decision is in the best interests of all the communities being served.
This message is from the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canadian War Museum, Ingenium and the National Gallery of Canada.
#CanadianMuseumOfHistory; #HumanRights; #Equality; #2020BlackHistoryMonth
Gatineau (Quebec), Feb 6 (Canadian-Media): A special evening would be hosted by the Canadian Museum of History with the support of TD Bank Group on Feb 27 at 7 p.m. with the author and educator Wanda Robson, youngest sister of Viola Desmond, media reports said.
Canadian Museum of History. Image credit: Twitter
“TD has a long-standing commitment...contribute to a society where more people...reflected in the stories that are shaping Canada. Through the TD Ready Commitment, we are proud to recognize the work of Wanda Robson, as a champion and advocate for human rights, equality, and Viola Desmond’s legacy as part of our 2020 Black History Month Series,” said Naki Osutei, Associate Vice President, Social Impact, TD Bank Group.
Located on the shores of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec, the Canadian Museum of History's primary role is not only to enhance Canadians’ knowledge of understanding and appreciation of the events that have shaped Canada’s history and identity, but also to enhance Canadians’ awareness of world history and culture.
The museum is visited by over 1.2 million visitors each year.
Advancement of the Canadian Museum of History is made possible in part through financial support of the Government of Canada.
Robson's efforts to raise public awareness of the struggle for racial equality in Canada generated to grassroots support for Desmond across the country leading to the appearance of Viola Desmond’s image on Canada’s new $10 bill in 2018, representing for the first time Canadian woman' image on the $10 bill.
Viola Desmond, successful businesswoman in her day, refused to be treated differently, based on the colour of her skin and became well-known for refusing to sit in the back of a movie theatre in 1946.
After Desmond’s death in 1965, Robson has championed her sister’s legacy in public appearances and in print including the book Sister to Courage: Stories from the World of Viola Desmond, Canada’s Rosa Parks.
Museum of History would also be honouring Wanda Robson and Viola Desmond with plans to record an oral history interview with Robson.
Seats from the Roseland Theatre, in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, which refused Desmond the right to sit where she chose have been acquired by the museum to be displayed and a Heritage Minute featuring Desmond will be screened.
In addition, National Stamp Collection displays a stamp featuring Viola Desmond.
Museum’s Canadian History Hall displays the new Canadian $10 bill and celebrates the legacy of both Viola Desmond and Wanda Robson.
The evening will be moderated by Nova Scotia Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, Robson's personal friend, who would be highlighting what it means to be women of colour in Canada today.
The evening would conclude by a question and answer session and a reception in the Theatre Lobby.
Tickets ($20) are available online or at 819-776-7000.
#Vancouver; #B.C., #Chinese-CanadianMuseum; #Vancouver'sChinatown
Vancouver (B.C.), Nov 8 (Canadian-Media: B.C. government is giving a $1 million boost to the City of Vancouver to support the establishment of a Chinese-Canadian museum, with the aim of creating branches in other communities across the province, media reports said.
Bill Yee, the first Chinese-Canadian elected to Vancouver city council and also a member of the working group for the proposed museum the so-called hub-and-spoke model would enable
partnerships with municipalities, such as Victoria, where Chinese immigrants first began to arrive in the late 1850s.
"We are hoping that the museum will touch all the areas in the province that in the past have (had) Chinese people," said Yee and added this approach could help unite Chinese-Canadians across the province.
"The reality is many Chinese-Canadians are not living around Chinatown anymore, they're all over the place," he said.
The museum's objective to explore the past through curated artifacts, stories, and educational resources would be complemented by current events and visions of the future for Chinese-Canadians.
It's an opportunity to celebrate the Chinese-Canadians who helped build B.C., Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said on Friday.
"Chinese-Canadians have made an exceptional impact to the social, economic, and cultural lives of the province and the city, and we are committed to acting on the opportunities we have to conserve, commemorate, and enhance the living heritage and cultural assets of Vancouver's Chinatown for all Canadians," he said at the opening of the proposed museum's new project office.
The office is located at a Chinese cultural centre and features a small gallery of photos and stories, which offer a peek into what the museum could be like.
The centre is already home to the Chinese-Canadian Military Museum, so Yee said it's likely the provincial 'hub' museum would be established there too.
The museum is also part of a joint effort by the province and Vancouver to have the city's Chinatown designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Stewart called Chinatown an "incredibly important part of Vancouver's cultural identity," as well as being one of the oldest and largest Chinatowns outside Asia.

domain: news


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A few weeks ago, a tweet by Jay Cue of NRK sent my world into a temporary tailspin. I was introduced unsuspectingly to the world of Action Bastard, a young Baltimorean emcee/producer with a pension for dense, clever, often cleverly offensive rhymes and Neptunes inspired weirdo synth beats. If this sounds like everyone’s favorite love them or hate them or love to hate them group of rapping misfits Odd Future, there’s certainly reason for this–Action views his contemporaries like OF and NRK through the lens of a fan and a peer. Below we talk about influences, the present, Baltimore, and nerd rap.
When did you first figure out you wanted to rap and produce and what were the records that inspired you?
When me and my younger brother (twitter.com/2377y I don’t know why he spells it like that) were like elementary school age we used to do stupid freestyles all the time. I always enjoyed hearing actual beats on songs rather than the people rapping over it, so I always wondered what it was like behind the scenes and shit. My uncle makes beats and raps, so I grew up watching him a lot.
I would say the records that inspired me were damn near everything Timbaland and the Neptunes put out. Timbo’s production was just ridiculous. He threw baby noises and Godzilla roars on a track and that shit came out awesome sauce. The Neptunes just made the type of spacey, melodic beats I always wanted to hear. I also would say It’s Dark and Hell is Hot because it just sounded like the soundtrack to a drug dealer horror movie. Dame Grease was channeling the Phantom of the Opera or some shit with that one.
What was your first experience producing? What were you working with?
My first experience was with MTV Music Generator 2 for PS2. Me and Malcolm saw that shit in a blockbuster near his house and went half on it. We would switch off and make beats until he got Digital Hitz Factory and I kept Music Generator. My beats were acceptable for tracks made on a video game, but I was all broke and didn’t want to invest in music equipment. I also couldn’t actually record anything on those beats. We would have to hook the PS2 audio up to a computer and do a bunch of extra unnecessary shit to put them in mp3 form. In retrospect, that shit was the pits, but it taught me a lot about music and chords and shit, though.
To get a little more into your production style and how your influences play out: when you started making beats, were you trying to mimic the stuff you were hearing from the Neptunes and Timbaland, or did their influence come later?
Hell yeah. I did my damnest to try to emulate Neptunes chords and shit and I would fail, in my opinion. Like, other people would hear it and be like “Whoa, this is some Neptunes shit” and I would be offended like “Don’t disrespect Pharrell & Chad like that”. I even sampled the intro to Clones and reversed it for one old ass beat I made. I was just a major Star Trak stan. I was the nigga throwing the Star Trak sign up in pictures talking about BAPE all the time when I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t even try to copy Timbaland. Timbaland beats are hard to emulate.
5 favorite Neptunes beats? 5 Timbo beats?
Shit, I knew I would have to do this one day. Alright, in no particular order:
“Grinding” by the Clipse
“Rock n Roll” by Fam-Lay
“Allure” by Jay-Z
“Champion” by Clipse
“Midnight Hour” by Natasha Ramos
“I’ll Be Around” by Cee-Lo
“Cry Me a River” by Justin Timberlake
“If Your Girl Only Knew” by Aaliyah
“Money Talks” by Lil Kim
“The Bounce” by Jay-Z & Kanye West
I know I’m gonna see this and be pissed I forgot something because I seriously couldn’t list my favorite beats from those niggas.
What’s your favorite song/album out right now? What sucks?
I have, like, music ADD, so my shit flips all around randomly. I would say my favorite song right now is “Kelly Star” by the Lover Lover. I don’t wanna sound bias, but me and Lover Lover just have a good musical relationship where I just send her beats I think she would like and she sends back masterpieces. The albums I’m listening to the most right now are “XXX” by Danny Brown and “Samoan Fantasies” by Lombardi & Luwees. I also started listening to “Autumn Harvest” by Charles Hamilton a lot again.
What really sucks right now is all of the fucking Lex Luger copycats. I read that shitty “Top Whatever Upcoming Producers” list on Complex and found out most of the beats I thought Lex Luger made were made by a bunch of different niggas. It’s bad enough Lex Luger makes the same beat over and over, but now there are Lex Luger clones making Lex Luger beats.
What is the Elite Hunters Club? Who’s in it? What do y’all have in the works?
The Elite Hunters Club is Me, Malcolm Maximillion, The Lover Lover, Yosemite Rell and Uncle Russie. I had offered the name for the group because I heard it on Hostel. That was the name of the niggas that, like, paid money to torture people. I thought it had a nice ring to it and I was like “Hey, we’re spending our own money on equipment to kill beats and shame these rap niggas, so why not?” and everybody liked it.
Right now we have The Lover Lover working on her follow up to “Cult Following” which is gonna have a bunch of my beats on it. Malcolm Maximillion is working on “The Dexter Morgan Mixtape” and “Inspired by Pain”. As a group, we’re putting out “Bag Limits”, our first album and “Fuck Stuart” which is gonna be a mixtape of us rapping over a bunch of industry beats. Last but not least, I’m trying to work on getting shit done for “Suck My Dick, I’m a Shark”, my first project.
Do you and the EHC have any female fans?
Well, yeah, they just won’t write EHC on their titties for us. The only rap group without female fans is M.O.P.
What’s the response been to EHC in Baltimore? Are you guys playing shows or is your music confined mostly to the internet at the moment?
I honestly have no idea. We’re about to start trying to perform locally and build a hometown fanbase, but only our friends know about our music, mostly. Malcolm has done some shows before, but me and other members are virgins to this performing shit. I mostly choose to stay on the internet because I don’t really like how Baltimore’s rap scene is going right now.
What’s the scene like in Baltimore for music like what you’re making?
Ha, I don’t think there is a scene for music like ours. Baltimore niggas are mainly involved in rap battles and shit right now. The dudes that are doing regular rap songs are mostly on the gangster shit and that’s not me at all. Elite Hunters Club is making our own music scene.
There’s definitely an audience for what you’re doing, but do you think you’ll have to leave Baltimore to reach it?
Absolutely. Thanks to the internet, it’s becoming easier to find an audience, but it doesn’t have the same effect as performing live. Anybody can put together a dumb ass song and put it on the internet and spam people, but to actually be able to entertain people live is a huge part of connecting with your audience as an artist. That’s the main way most artists are making money right now, so we’re trying to have shows and step up our performing game.
A lot of niggas just straight move to New York and LA because there’s always a place available where they can just perform or socialize and connect with like-minded people. We have that in Baltimore, but not on the scale of those cities. Malcolm Maximillion and Uncle Russie were in New York not too long ago for the Rap Yard BBQ hosted by Combat Jack and Dallas Penn. They didn’t even rap, they were just meeting people and getting their names out. Right now, we’re just trying to build a buzz and plan out what we’re gonna do.
You’ve worked with NRK, you’ve rocked over an old Tyler beat. What’re your thoughts on what these guys are doing? What’s your relationship with them? Is it all through the internet?
I think what they’re doing is awesome. Watching Odd Future basically come out of nowhere and build a fanbase through the internet was pretty inspiring. Now this nigga Tyler nominated for a VMA when last year they were practically unheard of and it’s good to see stuff like that happen [Ed. Note – this interview was conducted before Tyler actually won the VMA, so move back in time to an age before thousands of people tweeted “who the fuck just won this VMA?”]. I actually found out about NRK because when I started following Hal Williams (@PYRAMIDVRITRA) on twitter, I saw he was part of another body of artists and checked them out. I was just supporting music that I liked and they checked out some of our shit and that’s how “Evil Jesus” came about. I’m hoping to work with them more in the future and shit.
It’s basically all internet interaction. I want to travel and shit because that’s what musicians do if they want to branch out, but right now I’m just working on music to put out first. There’s like a musical renaissance going on through the internet right now and I’m trying to be apart of it. I’ve discovered so much new music in the past year that it’s ridiculous. What’s even cooler is meeting people on the internet that make good music and fuck with your music, too. It’s like a new level of fan interaction when everyone is a fan and an artist.
Where does your content come from?
Just my brain. I’ve always been weird and I’ve embraced that shit and it just reflects in my lyrics. I made up my own genre based on the main content of my music and I named it “Potheadpsychotittynerd rap”. I’m not really in to being all introspective, so a lot of my raps right now are just me having fun with the random shit that comes to my brain. Don’t expect too many thought-provoking “rapping civil rights leader” type of songs on “Suck My Dick, I’m A Shark” or anything.
“Potheadpsychotittynerd rap” sounds about right. But if someone called you a nerd rapper, would you object?
I wouldn’t at all. I actually like nerdcore rap like MC Front-A-Lot and MC Lars, but I don’t think I would be considered that nerdy. It would be awesome if I am considered nerdcore, but I think I rap about sex too much, though.
When I think of nerd rap, I think of some of the stuff I listened to in my teens–Aesop Rock and the Definitive Jux roster. Does that stuff cross your mind when you think of nerdcore, or is that a subgenre of rap that you see as totally different? Did it have any influence on you?
Yeah, I would say that Def Jux and Stones Throw and labels like that are in a different subgenre. They’re like the epitome of independent rap labels to me because the artists just make whatever they want and it sounds good. That’s how I want to be; Let me make the type of music I want and as long as I’m happy, you shut the fuck up. Yeah, I’m a nerd, but I like football, titties, reefer, and cursing all the time. Def Jux is full of niggas that can’t be categorized easily and I support that.
Metal Gear Solid or Tenchu?
Metal Gear Solid. Tenchu is fun and ninjas are the shit, but Metal Gear Solid was a game changer. After that shit came out, every game had stealth missions. The characters, the wild ass story, just everything about it makes it a classic.
You think you can get Otakon to sponsor an album?
Ha, I wish. I’m definitely going to try though. If they do it, I might get on ustream and cry or some shit. That would be a surefire way to get showered in weeaboo pussy.
Is your goal to rap and produce from here on out or do you see yourself playing more of a background role as the producer alone like you do on Lover Lover records?
I’m always going to prefer making beats over rapping, but I don’t think I’m going to stop doing the rap thing. I’m not trying to be a Kanye West or anything because then people are gonna expect me to put my voice over my beats all the time and I’m good without the pressure. After I put out “Suck My Dick, I’m a Shark”, I’m gonna focus more on trying to get recognized for my beats and doing more production for Elite Hunters Club.

domain: artistic


text:
Fuji Musicians Latest News
Kwam1 is currently trending on social media following an incident with a photographer at an event. In a trending video, the fuji musician can be seen landing a hot slap on a photographer's head.
Veteran Nigerian fuji musician, Alhaji Abass Akande Obesere, also referred to as Omo Rapala seems to be making a comeback in the entertainment industry seeing as a lot of new generation people are now more aware of his music.
Nigerian music star, Asa, revealed in a recent interview that she is a fan of controversial rapper, Naira Marley. According to the Jailer crooner, she thinks she is a Marlian.
Popular musician Saheed Osupa recently paid a courtesy visit to the new Mayegun of Yoruba land, Wasiu Ayinde Marshall. The musician flooded his Instagram page with photos and videos from the visit.
Fuji stars Pasuma and Saheed Osupa have finally reconciled after a five-year feud. Their reconciliation was orchestrated by a colleague named Sulaimon Alao (Ks1-Malaika) who brought them together at a Ramadan lecture.
The rumours of MC Oluomo's death were put to rest after Ibadan-based fuji star, Taye Currency, visited the NURTW boss while he was still in the hospital. Not only that, Currency shared a video of a smiling MC Oluomo.

domain: entertainment


1967 Parking Brake Recommendation?
When we restored my car, we neglected to replace the rear two parking brake cables (no idea why) but replaced the front cable and handle assembly. The handle assembly was absolute crap, but installed it anyways, which I regret now.
I want to get my parking brake working again, so are there any recommendations on different parking brake options, or do most just stick with the factory setup? I kept the factory rear drums, but with all new parts obviously. Car is a 4 speed, so it would be nice to have.


Sony has outlined its PlayStation 4 deals coming to retail stores and the digital marketplace this month. The discounts will be good from November 18-26 in the USA, or November 22-30 in Canada. Those include discounts on system bundles, accessories like controllers and PlayStation VR, and a subscription to PlayStation Plus.
You can pick up a Spider-Man PS4 bundle for $200 US / $260 CAN, which nets you a 1TB standard PS4 system with a copy of the game from Insomniac. You can also pick up extra controllers for $40 US / $50 CAN, including some of the color variants like Blue Camouflage and Magma Red. The PlayStation VR has also been marked down to $200 / $250 CAN.
The announcement also teased a deal on a PlayStation Plus 12-month subscription, along with discounts on various games through the digital PlayStation Store from November 16-27. While it didn’t mention specific prices, it did tease a discounted price on Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 coming to Plus subscribers starting today.
Black Friday is a good time to pick up some deals on games across a lot of platforms and retailers, and some sales have already started. You can check out all of those and a lot more in our growing collection of Black Friday roundups.


text:
1. AMY GOODMAN: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi granted pardons to 100 people Wednesday, including two jailed journalists from Al Jazeera—Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed. The two were initially arrested along with Australian journalist Peter Greste as part of a crackdown on Al Jazeera following the ouster of the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. To the shock of press freedom advocates, the three were initially sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison. After over a year in jail, Peter Greste was released in February, deported home to Australia. Shortly afterwards, Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were also freed on bail. But then, in August, those two were sentenced—resentenced to three years in jail. Last week, Baher Mohamed described what it felt like to be finally pardoned.
2. BAHER MOHAMED: Finally, yes, after 411 days, it’s like a big rock was on your chest, and suddenly you moved it. So it was such a feeling—it’s hard to describe that moment. I was like jumping and jumping, like—and even I heard the word “release,” and that’s it, because the sound inside the cell, because the cell, as you know, it’s like with glass, surrounded with glass, so you can just hear almost the sound. So, it was amazing. I just can’t express. I kept jumping and jumping. I’m like, “Finally.”
I’m happy that I will return back, I will not stay in prison. I’m happy that I’m going back to my family, seeing my family and my kids. I just spoke to my wife and kids now. They were very happy that I’m returning home. This is something very beautiful and I really appreciate. And I’m willing to continue this for freedom of press.
3. AMY GOODMAN: In a statement, Amnesty International said, quote, “While these pardons come as a great relief, it is ludicrous that some of these people were even behind bars in the first place.” “While these pardons come [as a great relief],” they said, “it is ludicrous that some of these [people] were even behind bars in the first place.”
While Fahmy and Mohamed have been pardoned, no pardon has been issued yet for Peter Greste. He has come to New York to lobby for a presidential pardon while Egyptian President General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is here attending the United Nations General Assembly. El-Sisi has also been invited by President Obama to attend the Leaders’ Summit on Countering ISIL and Violent Extremism taking place on Tuesday at the United Nations. Egypt claims it recently killed as many as 500 people in the Sinai Peninsula during an anti-militant offensive called Operation Martyr’s Right. Peter Greste joins us here in our studio, longtime foreign correspondent who has worked at the BBC, CNN and Reuters before joining Al Jazeera. In 2011, he won a Peabody Award for a documentary on Somalia.
Peter Greste, it’s a pleasure to have you here in our studio in New York.
4. PETER GRESTE: Thanks very much, Amy. It’s fantastic to be here.
5. AMY GOODMAN: You served over 400 days in prison in Egypt.
6. PETER GRESTE: Four hundred exactly, in fact.
7. AMY GOODMAN: And you got out of prison, you were deported to Australia. Explain what happened last week with your two Al Jazeera colleagues.
8. PETER GRESTE: What happened was that—one of the things that surprised us, in fact, was that when the retrial began—I was deported in a gap between our formal convictions and the start of the retrial process. Once the retrial began, we thought that I would—I was off the case. But I was in fact included in the retrial. I was on trial in absentia. The court officially didn’t recognize my deportation under presidential order. And so, we were all convicted a few weeks ago. Finally, we’ve—
9. AMY GOODMAN: And sentenced to another three years.
10. PETER GRESTE: Exactly, sentenced to another three years, convicted on terrorism charges. And then, last week, and much to everyone’s surprise—we really weren’t expecting it—the president formally pardoned, as you mentioned earlier, 100, about 100 prisoners, 100 detainees, including Fahmy and Baher. We were hoping that I and six other people who were also convicted in absentia in the first trial would also receive pardons. That hasn’t happened yet. And so, as you just mentioned, that’s why I’m here at the moment, to try and clear the names of all of those who were convicted in absentia.
11. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what happened this weekend in the U.N.?
12. PETER GRESTE: Well, this weekend, we saw President Sisi speak. We saw quite a number of—we know there were a lot of—there was a number of meetings. We’ve seen quite a lot of attention focused on President Sisi—I take it this is what you’re talking about. And we’ve also been doing—having a number of conversations. I’ve been speaking to the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, who has also spoken to her counterpart, her Egyptian counterpart. And everyone seems to be supporting us.
13. AMY GOODMAN: Now, just to understand, on Friday, when the pope addressed the General Assembly, didn’t your foreign minister, Julie Bishop, meet with the foreign minister in the presence of President el-Sisi?
14. PETER GRESTE: That’s right, it was in—it was in the presence of President Sisi. And so that’s why we—
15. AMY GOODMAN: And what did they say?
16. PETER GRESTE: Well, Julie Bishop, as she relayed the conversation, she said that Foreign Minister Shoukry said that the Egyptians were keen to try and find a solution to this, that they were looking favorably at the possibility of pardoning the journalists, but that they had several legal obstacles to overcome, and that, if necessary, they would—
17. AMY GOODMAN: What made you different from your two colleagues?
18. PETER GRESTE: The fact that we were convicted in absentia. As I understand it, the law doesn’t allow the president to pardon people who are in absentia, that we have to be present, physically present, in Egypt to apply for a pardon.
19. AMY GOODMAN: Are you planning to go back?
20. PETER GRESTE: No. No, we’re not. And, you know, I mean, in a way—
21. AMY GOODMAN: And you’re talking about another group of journalists who never served time in prison but were convicted in absentia.
22. PETER GRESTE: That’s right. In all, there were the three of us plus six others, who were all convicted—sorry, who were all charged in absentia in the first trial. They were unable to—well, they weren’t a part of the retrial, because, again, they’re not allowed to appeal if they’re not physically present. And so, they remain—those convictions remain for them.
And so, what we’re trying to do is get everybody off these charges. You know, this is—the fact is that we’re very grateful to President Sisi for pardoning Fahmy and Baher. It was an injustice that should never have happened, and I think President Sisi, in issuing those pardons, has made an implicit acknowledgment of that. But the fact is that that’s an extremely welcome first step. That was the thing that really has been bothering all of us. The one thing that we needed to happen was to have everybody out of prison. But I’m afraid that it’s not—it’s not everything. We need to finish this off, and that’s clear everyone else’s whose names are on this list.
23. AMY GOODMAN: What does it mean to say that you have not been pardoned? How does that affect you?
24. PETER GRESTE: Well, look, it affects—there are three big areas in this. The first is, is the usual problems that come with anybody who—confront anybody who’s been—who has a criminal record. This is a very serious criminal record. It’s a record on terrorism charges. As anybody knows, if you’ve got a criminal record, it makes travel very difficult. It was quite difficult for me to get into the United States.
25. AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean?
26. PETER GRESTE: Well, anyone who travels to the U.S. on an Australian passport generally gets in on a visa waiver program, but to do that, you have to answer an online questionnaire. And one of the questions is: Have you ever been arrested? And if you check that box, you have to explain the circumstances of the arrest. And, of course, I have to say that I was arrested and convicted on charges of aiding a terrorist organization, financing a terrorist organization, broadcasting false news to undermine national security, but please google me because it was—even President Obama spoke out in support of our case. So, you know, it raises all sorts of red flags for the bureaucrats that are processing these visas. We had to go and get special clearance from the State Department, from John Kerry’s office himself, to get that visa through. Now, it was never going to be a major problem, but it caused us a lot of bureaucratic headaches.
Other things, like getting bank loans and the like, are all problematic. Travel is a real headache. I want to—I’m trying to go to a number of countries. I work—I was working in Kenya before I was arrested. Kenya was my home. I was covering East Africa as East Africa correspondent for Al Jazeera. And again, the whole of the African Union has an extradition treaty. Now, the problem is that if we—if an arrest warrant is issued, then I’m liable to be arrested anywhere in the African Union and sent back to Egypt. Again, we don’t know that that warrant has been issued, but it—as far as I’m aware, it hasn’t, but that can be issued at anytime. And it’s kind of like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head.
But quite apart from those issues, the fact is that this case has become emblematic of the much wider issues over press freedom. And so, what we’ve been saying to the diplomats and to Egypt is that we need to see this finished off, because our cases had a very damaging effect, I think, on freedom of the press. Now, the Egyptians keep saying to us that this was never about the press, this was—about freedom of the press, they weren’t targeting the press specifically, they weren’t trying to send any message, this was simply about the facts of law. Whatever their motivations were, the fact is that it sent a very chilling message to any journalist that’s been operating in Egypt. And so, to have—if the press is going to operate freely, as is enshrined in the Egyptian constitution, then we need to get these charges cleared.
27. AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Peter Greste. He is free. He’s in our studio. He’s here in New York. He’s lobbying the Egyptian president, el-Sisi, for a pardon. When we come back, we want to talk about his time in prison and also those who remain behind bars, talk about overall press freedom. Peter Greste is an Al Jazeera journalist, imprisoned in Egypt for 400 days, covering the Egyptian revolution that took place. He was arrested during a crackdown on Al Jazeera during the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. We’ll be back with him in a minute. [break] This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Our guest is Peter Greste. He’s one of the three Al Jazeera reporters who were arrested December 29th, 2013. You heard about them extensively over the 400 days that Peter Greste was in jail, and a bit more than that for Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, who have just been pardoned and released from jail by the president of Egypt. I was wondering, Peter, if you’d go back to that day, to December 29, 2013. You’d been in Egypt for what? Like two weeks?
28. PETER GRESTE: Yeah, just two weeks. I was only in the bureau covering. This was—you know, I’m not an Egypt expert. I hadn’t worked in the country before, and I was in Kenya covering East Africa. That’s my patch. And so, they needed someone to work over that Christmas-New Year period, and so I agreed to go up and just fill in the bureau. And so, honestly, one of the things that continually frustrated me, in a way, is that we were arrested for what turns out to be some pretty mundane reporting. We weren’t doing anything particularly radical at the time. I was simply trying to make sure that we had the basic stories covered. It was all very routine journalism. There was no particular investigation. And we weren’t—certainly weren’t pushing the boundaries. So I was absolutely staggered, to be honest, when the secret service agents—or, the special service agents burst into our room and started picking up all of my equipment and dragged me off down to the police station.
29. AMY GOODMAN: Now, you were covering—at that time, Mubarak was out, President Morsi was in?
30. PETER GRESTE: No, at that point, President Morsi had been ousted.
31. AMY GOODMAN: Had been ousted.
32. PETER GRESTE: Had already been ousted in June of 2013. There was the interim administration, which had been installed earlier that year, and that government was trying to—its main job was to organize new elections, fresh elections, which happened earlier in 2014. At the time, the Brotherhood was under enormous pressure. Shortly before we were arrested, the government banned the Brotherhood and declared them to be—declared them to be a terrorist organization, but hadn’t formally or legally gazetted them as a terrorist organization. So, as far as we were concerned, the Brotherhood still amounted to the official opposition. It had formed the government. It was the first legitimately elected administration that Egypt had ever had. It had been forced out of power, and the new government had taken to declaring it as a terrorist organization. Well, we were simply doing the job of any responsible journalist, particularly when it came to covering some fairly significant political changes that were taking place. The government was introducing new legislation. It introduced—it changed the constitution quite radically. And so we went and asked the Brotherhood what they thought of it. Now, of course, we weren’t acting as propagandists; we were simply doing, as I said, the responsible—the job of responsible journalists and producing balanced reports.
33. AMY GOODMAN: And so, explain what the government charged you with.
34. PETER GRESTE: We were charged basically with being propagandists for the Brotherhood. We were accused of—
35. AMY GOODMAN: Because to interview them was to be their propagandists, according to the Egyptian government.
36. PETER GRESTE: Basically, yes, yes. I mean, the charges were far more severe. We were charged with broadcasting false news. We were charged with broadcasting news to undermine national security. We were charged with trying to give the false impression of Egypt in a state of chaos, as a country at war. We didn’t—we did none of those things. You know, and one of the things we have continually said to the prosecutor was, “Look, if you believe that we broadcast false news, that we acted as propagandists, then, please, show us. I mean, by definition, the work that we produce is a matter of public record. So, where is the false news? Where is the propaganda?” One of the rather disturbing elements of the verdict, which—the written judgment, which was released only a few weeks ago, was the idea that—from the judges, who said that there was no need for specific technical evidence in our case, that the overall narrative was enough to convict us, which I think cuts to the very core of the problem here, that Egypt seems to believe that simply by working for an organization that’s financed by Qatar, we must, by definition, be members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and there’s no need for them to come up with any specific evidence of it.
37. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to one of your last reports, Peter Greste, before you were arrested, covering clashes between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian security forces.
38. PETER GRESTE: As you can see, that the protests, the clashes are still ongoing. We understand that the Muslim Brotherhood students or the pro-Muslim Brotherhood students entered the university in some of the exam halls. They tried to tear up some of the exam papers and enforce a boycott of the exams in protest at the government. We understand that the authorities, the police moved in and fired tear gas. And it was the heat from the tear gas canisters which apparently set fire to some of the exam papers. Either way, what we have there is an ongoing clash that really represents the broader divisions that we’re seeing, that we saw yesterday, where supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of the anti-coup alliance took to the streets in open defiance of the government’s ban on protests, and in particular challenging the government to arrest them and enforce this five-year prison sentence, which the government has been threatening to impose on anybody who is convicted of taking part in these demonstrations.
39. AMY GOODMAN: That was Peter Greste in Cairo talking about what was happening at that time in the clashes between the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian security forces. Must bring you back. So, December 29th, they break into where you were staying.
40. PETER GRESTE: Mm-hmm.
41. AMY GOODMAN: And they took everything.
42. PETER GRESTE: That’s right.
43. AMY GOODMAN: And you go to prison.
44. PETER GRESTE: Yes.
45. AMY GOODMAN: What happens? Describe the time in prison for us, because often, for everyone obviously outside, that is a black box, once you disappear.
46. PETER GRESTE: Yeah, yeah. Look, Egyptian prisons are never the best of places. You know, prison anywhere is pretty tough experience. And Egyptian prisons are never the easiest. We went through two—I was in two police cells before we actually entered the prison system. And I think the police cells were probably some of the toughest experiences of my life. One of them was—one cell was a box about eight-foot square, and it had a toilet in one corner and a sink in the other and a door and a tiny little exhaust fan up in the corner. There were 16 guys in that box. It was unbelievably crowded. It was impossibly, impossibly crowded. And there were a couple of guys who had been in there for about six months, with almost no time out of that at all. It was quite—it was quite shocking. We were moved—I didn’t spend a great deal of time in there, only a couple of days, but it was enough to understand the kind of environment that an awful lot of people are in.
From there, we were moved into the prison system, into a number of prisons. I was kept in solitary confinement for the first couple of—first 10 days or so, before I was allowed to have any kind of connections with any other prisoners. Again, a small concrete box, basic water and food and a bed, but quite, quite tough conditions at that point. It was very, very cold. It was midwinter, of course, and even though Egypt gets hot in the summer, it’s also very, very cold in winter. The problem, I think—or I know that we also had probably—not probably, definitely—much better prison conditions than almost anybody else, largely, I think, because we had a lot of attention focused on us from a lot of human rights groups, from diplomats, from consular missions and so on.
47. AMY GOODMAN: When did you rejoin Baher and Mohamed?
48. PETER GRESTE: It took about a month. I was with—I was in a prison called Luman. I was alongside some of the main activists of the January 25th revolution, the youth activists, the secular activists, people like Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma, leaders of the April 6 Movement and several other groups. And then, just before our retrial—our trial, rather, our first trial began, I was moved to another prison called Mulhaq, which had most of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in it. And that’s where we were all put in one cell together.
49. AMY GOODMAN: Gave you a chance to really interview them.
50. PETER GRESTE: Well, yes, yeah, talk to them. We actually started what was called Mulhaq Radio, where, after lockdown, everyone would pull the beds up to the end of the doors, and there was a small hatch, and you’d sort of bellow out the doors and have these conversations up and down the corridors, and really sort of started to, I guess—you know, we’re journalists. We do what journalists normally do, and that’s kind of interrogate and try and understand what was going on, what were the deeper issues involved, what was the Brotherhood leadership thinking, because, again, we—you know, we wanted to know. We wanted to understand.
51. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to read an excerpt that you wrote from prison. It was published by Al Jazeera in 2014. Writing from the Tora Prison, Peter Greste, you say your colleagues, Fahmy and Baher, quote, “have been accused of being Muslim Brotherhood members, so they are being held in the far more draconian ‘Scorpion prison’ built for convicted terrorists. Fahmy has been denied the hospital treatment he badly needs for a shoulder injury he sustained shortly before our arrest. Both men spend 24 hours a day in their mosquito-infested cells, sleeping on the floor with no books or writing materials to break the soul-destroying tedium. Remember we have not been formally charged, much less convicted of any crime. But this is not just about three Al Jazeera journalists. Our arrest and continued detention sends a clear and unequivocal message to all journalists covering Egypt, both foreign and local.” How did you get that letter out?
52. PETER GRESTE: I can’t tell you at this point. You know, the systems—there are ways of communicating in Egypt. There are still some people who helped, who supported us, who were interested in making sure that our case was heard. And so, I can’t go into too much detail, but I wrote that letter because I was concerned, because, as I said, at that particular point we hadn’t been charged. It was quite clear that this was heading in a very dangerous direction. This was really only a couple of weeks after we’d been arrested. And for the first few weeks, I really struggled trying to understand what was taking place, what had happened, why we were in this position. I felt that—initially thought it had been a mistake, that, you know, it would all be a matter—it would all be cleared up fairly quickly. We hadn’t done anything wrong. I knew we hadn’t done anything wrong. And so, once the authorities understood, then we’d be fine. But as the questioning progressed, it became clear to me that this really wasn’t just about what we had done ourselves, it was what we had come to represent, and that was the entire journalism community. And that’s why I wrote that letter, because I felt that the case would either be argued about the detail of what we had said, whether it was right for us to interview one figure and not the other, whether our language had been biased or not biased, when in fact what this really was about, as far as I was concerned, was the bigger issues of the press, of press freedom.
53. AMY GOODMAN: And describe what it was like to be brought to court, to stand in a cage.
54. PETER GRESTE: Yeah, that was tough. You know, the whole—that court is designed for terrorism cases, and so when you’re brought into that room and you’re placed in a cage with a buffer between you and everybody else in court, it’s quite intimidating. You know that this is how you’re being treated, that you’re being seen as a very—as not just a dangerous prisoner, but as a direct threat to the security of everybody else in that room. Yes, it is a—it was extremely difficult to see. And even watching these pictures now makes me feel—takes me back quite dramatically to those times.
55. AMY GOODMAN: Who was it who yelled, who shouted out, of the three of you?
56. PETER GRESTE: It was Fahmy and Baher. Both of them have far bigger voices. I’m routinely described by my colleagues as soft-spoken. My voice just doesn’t have the same kind of volume. And every time I tried to shout out, I never quite managed to get—to make it across the room. Everybody else was struggling to hear. So, they would—
57. AMY GOODMAN: And their point in doing that, what they were shouting?
58. PETER GRESTE: Well, we needed—we needed to communicate. We had no other way of directly communicating. The rooms were full of journalists.
59. AMY GOODMAN: You’re hearing people in the background, for our audience. This is the court. And for those who are watching, who are listening on the radio, we’re showing images of Baher and Mohamed and Peter in a cage.
60. PETER GRESTE: Yeah, in the cage in the court, and that was very—that felt—that was very confronting. Fahmy was basically shouting out messages to—obviously, to our families, but also the bigger messages that we felt needed to be—we needed to remind people of. We knew that there was a lot of press attention. We could see the journalists all arrayed before us. And we needed to make it very clear to them that we were innocent, that we felt that we were being charged—we were being used as an example rather than because of anything that we had actually done.
61. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about that period of time? You spent in a cell with Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy how many days?
62. PETER GRESTE: I don’t remember exactly how many days we spent in that cell. It would have been—well, the trial ran over six months, so it was that six-month period that we were in that—in that cell.
63. AMY GOODMAN: How did you keep your sanity, day to day, in prison?
64. PETER GRESTE: For me, it’s—I didn’t think of it at this point—in quite so clear terms at the time, but ultimately it boiled down to dealing with mind, body and spirit, that you had to keep your physical fitness up. And so, every opportunity we had, you would—we went exercising. They’d let us out for an hour a day, and we would run for that full hour. We also had an exercise regime that the Australian Embassy brought in called 5BX, which is designed for a very confined space. In fact, I think it was designed by the Canadian Air Force for their airmen, if they were ever downed in World War II and captured. And it was very useful to us. We were able to keep relatively fit.
But the problem also in prison is that you’re faced with this amorphous blob of time, this shapeless lump of time, and if you don’t do something with that time, if you don’t impose a structure on it, it will send you crazy. And so, we would spend—I would spend a lot of time in meditation. We had nothing in there—no books, no writing material, no reading material. They even took our watches for the first period. And that made it—that made it psychologically extremely difficult. And so, if you—what happens is that your mind tends to start in on—turn in on itself. In that kind of environment, your mind is your own worst enemy. And so, for me, meditation was a way of controlling that sort of monkey mind, controlling the mind that—controlling your mind, stopping it from running out of control, from running amok.
And the other part of it was also dealing with keeping mentally fit. So we would play mind games, memory games. We’d do—try and consciously spend time being creative. Sometimes we had food delivered with foil, wrapped up, and we’d save the foil, and we made foil murals on the walls, you know, sort of stuck it up with soap—anything, basically, to keep ourselves mentally active, as well.
65. AMY GOODMAN: You and Baher came up with a universal media freedom charter?
66. PETER GRESTE: That’s right. We, Baher and I, were trying to think about what—first of all, what we could—why we were in this situation and about the bigger issues around press freedom, not just in Egypt, but globally, because I don’t think the issue is just—is confined. Even in Australia, we have some fairly draconian laws that we’re fighting at the moment to try and make sure that we keep press free to do the fundamental job that we play in a democracy. And so, we’re seeing—we’re seeing the press freedom eroded quite dramatically around the world. We felt that there needed to be some kind of clear statement of the principles of journalism and the roles and responsibilities that both journalists and governments need to have. Something—we recognized that something that has force of law is probably too difficult to get through, but something along the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the kind of thing that we’d be looking for that has—that sets a gold standard of the way the relationship should work, of the roles and responsibilities of both government and the media, that has, if not force of law, certainly a lot of moral authority. This is still very much a work in progress. This might not be the best solution that we’re—or the only solution, but we need to do something to protect journalists in these kinds of situations.
67. AMY GOODMAN: In Egypt, there are still more than 20 journalists who are behind bars, the most high-profile of them, Abdullah Al-Fakharany, who has received a life sentence, also Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who’s also known as Shawkan, who’s been held for over two years without trial.
68. PETER GRESTE: Look, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists has done those surveys. The Egyptian government insists that it is operating within the law, insists that those journalists are there because they broke—that there were specific breaches of the law.
69. AMY GOODMAN: Like with you.
70. PETER GRESTE: As they did with us, exactly. The fact that we have been pardoned rather than acquitted, I think, is still concerning for us. I would rather have our names cleared by the judicial process.
71. AMY GOODMAN: Although you haven’t been pardoned.
72. PETER GRESTE: But I haven’t—no, I haven’t been pardoned, and so we need to go through that process.
73. AMY GOODMAN: What about the role of Al Jazeera? Mohamed Fahmy sued Al Jazeera for breach of contract, for saying that they didn’t—they weren’t concerned enough with security. Your thoughts about whether Al Jazeera stood up for you enough?
74. PETER GRESTE: Look, my feeling—there’s no doubt that Al Jazeera made some mistakes in the way that they handled our case, in the way that they handled things up in the lead-up to our arrest.
75. AMY GOODMAN: Because a group from Al Jazeera English was arrested before you all came in.
76. PETER GRESTE: Yes, yeah, that’s right. And there had been a lot of pressure on Al Jazeera and the journalists and the teams in Egypt. You know, Al Jazeera has never had the best relationship with the Egyptian authorities, and we understood that. And certainly there are some difficult questions to answer, and we’ve been through some fairly difficult forensic debates with our bosses. And, you know, it’s very—it’s still very much a work in progress.
But my view has always been that Al Jazeera, as an institution, was not on trial. If Egypt had problems with Al Jazeera as a network or with Qatar as a government, then it needed to deal with those organizations and those institutions at the appropriate level, not come after some guys on the ground. We were the ones who were specifically charged with aiding a terrorist organization, not the network. It was the three of us. We were specifically the ones that were charged with broadcasting false news. And so, we’ve always said, “Where was the evidence against us?” There was none. We weren’t involved with any of that. We were working as good professional journalists. We know our job. We know the limits of what we should and shouldn’t be doing. And there was nothing—you know, we did nothing criminal. We did not collude with terrorists. We certainly weren’t doing anything unethical.
77. AMY GOODMAN: And I wanted to ask what it meant to you, journalists around the world putting tape over their mouths in solidarity with you.
78. PETER GRESTE: Oh, Amy, this was extraordinary. You know, I was—we were absolutely overwhelmed by the scale of the response, both by our professional colleagues and by the public, by diplomats and politicians. You know, as you would know, journalists are about as difficult to organize as a herd of cats. Instinctively, we fight each other. We’re a skeptical, cynical, cantankerous bunch, and extremely competitive. And so, to see our direct rivals, like the BBC, like Christiane Amanpour from CNN, all taping their mouths up, holding “Free AJ staff” signs was unbelievably gratifying to us, because it made it very clear that the journalists around the world understood the significance of what we were going through and why this fight was so important, because it wasn’t just about the three of us, it was about the institution of press freedom.
79. AMY GOODMAN: And then, of course, there were your families, speaking out all along the way. Last year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said he would not intervene on the sentencing of the three Al Jazeera journalists to between seven and 10 years in prison, even as international outcry spread. I wanted to play a clip of your father, of Juris Greste, responding to that decision.
JURIS GRESTE: This is a very
dark time, not only for our family, but for journalism generally. We are
devastated, shocked and dismayed at this finding. We are not usually a family
of superlatives, but I have to say this morning my vocabulary fails to convey
just how shattered we are. Journalism is not a crime, or you should all be
behind bars. It’s as simple as that. This man, our son Peter, is an
award-winning journalist. He is not a criminal. He’s not a criminal.
AMY GOODMAN: That is your
father, Juris Greste. Where was he speaking?
82. PETER GRESTE: He was speaking in Brisbane, at the ABC studios in Brisbane. Yeah, watching that was quite difficult. You know, my father, my parents went through hell through that year. They were extraordinary advocates for us. They found a voice that I don’t think even they knew that they had. They fought and campaigned and lobbied. You know, my father is a retired architect. My mother is a social worker—again, a retired social worker. And all of a sudden they became international lawyers and diplomats and campaigners, completely outside their comfort zone. And so, you know, it was an incredibly tough time for all the family. But to be honest with you, I don’t think I’d be here now if it weren’t for them.
83. AMY GOODMAN: Because?
84. PETER GRESTE: Because they were the voice. They gave—they took my story and made it human. They made people understand what was really going on with us at a very human level. They made people appreciate what was going on. They allowed people to empathize and identify not just with us, but with the family, the extended family. And I think they helped really convey the fact that we weren’t terrorists, that we weren’t criminals, that we were professional journalists who were working with all the integrity and professionalism that we could muster.
85. AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to the end of this discussion. Our guest for the hour is Peter Greste, an Al Jazeera journalist who was imprisoned in Egypt for 400 days during the crackdown on Al Jazeera following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi. He was arrested December 29th, 2013, with his two Al Jazeera colleagues, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy. Back with him in a moment. [break] Our guest for the hour is Peter Greste, Al Jazeera journalist, known around the world because he was one of three Al Jazeera journalists imprisoned in Egypt. He was in prison for 400 days. He is here in New York seeking a pardon from the Egyptian president, el-Sisi, who is at the U.N. General Assembly. Whether he gets that, we’ll see. His two other colleagues, while held longer than he was, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, by a number of weeks, they were pardoned last week along with 100 others in Egypt.
I wanted to ask you about coverage of prisons and also of refugees. And you’ve reported all over the world. You won a major award covering Somalia, for example. You are the son of an asylum seeker in Australia?
86. PETER GRESTE: Yeah, of a refugee. My father is Latvian. His family fled Latvia when the Russians annexed the Baltic states, back during World War II—excuse me—and they came out to Australia as refugees in the wake of World War II. So, you know, in a way, of course, everybody, apart from the Aborigines in Australia, are migrants of some sort, whether they’re refugees or migrants seeking a better life. Everybody has come to Australia, I think, in much the same case—same way that they’ve come here, at some point, to this country.
87. AMY GOODMAN: And you criticized the former prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott.
88. PETER GRESTE: Yes. Well, I’ve—it was interesting. This was at the National Press Club, where somebody gave a speech—
89. AMY GOODMAN: In Australia.
90. PETER GRESTE: In Australia, yes, the National Press Club in Canberra. And, in fact, we had Julie Bishop, our foreign minister, sitting in the audience, and someone asked me about coverage of the refugee detention center in Nauru, an island to the north of Australia where asylum seekers are being held. And I made the point that—
91. AMY GOODMAN: So they keep them on islands in the South Pacific.
92. PETER GRESTE: That’s right, they keep them on islands away from the press. The press have been refused, have been denied access to those areas. And I felt very, very strongly about this, that this is not—we’re not been denied access on national security grounds. It’s impossible, I think, to justify denying access to journalists to those detention centers, because in a democracy the government acts in our name, the government works for us, as voters, as taxpayers. And so, unless there is a very clear, very specific reason for denying us access on national security grounds—and I simply can’t see why there would be in the case of asylum seekers—then we need to know what’s being done in our name. The only reason we can think of is that those detention centers might actually be embarrassing to the Australian government. Well, frankly, that’s not good enough. In a democracy, we need to understand what’s being done.
93. AMY GOODMAN: They either put them in detention centers or turn them away, the boats.
94. PETER GRESTE: That’s right, exactly. And anybody who tries to get into Australia by boat is automatically placed in those detention centers and either sent back to their country of origin or resettled in third countries. They will not be allowed into Australia. It’s a very controversial policy. The government—the government of Tony Abbott has insisted that it’s the only practical approach to stopping the boats. They say that this is for the safety of those—of the asylum seekers themselves, because they argue that in fact by stopping the movement of refugees, they’re effectively shutting down the people smugglers, which are—who are responsible for so many deaths at sea. Whether or not that’s actually saving lives is a debatable question. Whether this is the best way of doing that is something that is a debate that I think is still ongoing. And one of the key elements to that debate is whether it’s appropriate to keep those asylum seekers on those islands in those detention centers, in conditions that, frankly, we know are quite severe, but we really haven’t been able to examine properly because the press simply isn’t allowed access.
95. AMY GOODMAN: Finally, you laid a wreath along with Shirley Shackleton, the widow of Greg Shackleton.
96. PETER GRESTE: Yes.
97. AMY GOODMAN: A story I think our viewers and listeners know well, about East Timor. He was killed in the lead-up to the—Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor by Indonesian forces.
98. PETER GRESTE: Yeah, yeah.
99. AMY GOODMAN: You laid a wreath at the graves of war—or monument to war correspondents who have died.
100. PETER GRESTE: That’s right. This was something—and I’m getting goosebumps actually remembering all—remembering this. This is—and something I’m very proud of. The Australian government has, after a long, long time—the Australian War Memorial has agreed to a wreath—sorry, to a memorial to not just correspondents who have been killed in action, to war correspondents who have been killed in action, but to all those who serve in conflict zones as reporters. And I think it’s an extremely timely reminder of why—of the role that foreign correspondents, that war correspondents play in keeping people informed of what’s going on. We have to have a place that’s—we have a place that’s accepted, the government accepts that we have a legitimate role to play. And it’s right and proper, I think, that that role is memorialized.
101. AMY GOODMAN: We have two seconds. I want to thank you so much, Peter Greste, Al Jazeera journalist.


Will hypocrites such as Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmed listen to this sane voice?
India not the real enemy; militancy is
Friday, December 26, 2008
by Ayaz Amir
Militancy and extremism on the march. Three schools in Peshawar attacked with rockets. The Fazlullah-led Taliban in Swat ordering the closure of girls’ schools from January 15. Scores of schools already torched in Swat, one of the most beautiful places on earth. Swat’s prestigious Sangota Public School blown up on Oct 7. These events are far more important, of deeper impact, than the bluster and threats coming our way from India.
India will have to take leave of its senses to attack Pakistan, even to carry out a limited attack, what armchair idiots like to call a “precision strike”. Any Indian attack, precision or otherwise, will elicit a Pakistani response. Where that might lead to falls in the realm of the incalculable. It needs no Clausewitz to vouchsafe that it is easier to start wars; much harder, as the Americans from their Iraq and Afghanistan experience can testify, to end them.
India is piling up the pressure on Pakistan, exploiting the opportunity provided by the Mumbai attacks. We should take cognisance of the pressure and resist it. But there is no need to go into panic mode. India is not attacking us. Or, rather, it has no need to attack us because we are attacking ourselves from within. Militancy is on the march and the state (I can think of no better word) is in retreat, helpless before the militant onslaught, now confined not just to FATA and Swat but spreading, and indeed clueless about how to combat it.
We know how to meet any threat from India. This is travelled territory, a script we know by heart. But India is not the problem. We are being slowly devoured and destroyed from within and there is no agreed script about how this challenge, now turning into a grave threat, is to be met.
India says we are in denial about Mumbai. This is not true. Evidence of any smoking gun, clinching evidence rather than rhetorical flourishes, has yet to be shown to Pakistan. But this is beside the point. We, the Pakistani people and our state, are in denial about the tramp of what could easily pass for the 21st century equivalent of the Huns in the northwest and the north.
The problem before us has its roots in the past but it won’t do to make the past an alibi or excuse for twiddling our thumbs in the present. Gen Zia all those years ago helped create this Frankenstein monster and Gen Musharraf through ill-judged cunning, and equally ill-judged military actions, allowed militancy and extremism to become the fast-growing viruses which they presently are. But berating Zia and Musharraf won’t do us any good. The monster is a monster, regardless of the laboratory or the geniuses who created him.
What defies understanding, and the army has yet to come up with a convincing explanation, is why the army operation in Swat has come to a standstill, without being able to dent the power of the Fazlullah-led militants? It has been trying to clear Swat for over a year now but Fazlullah’s forces are stronger than ever. What is happening? There may be an American angle to the situation in FATA but there is none in Swat.
Turmoil in Swat makes nonsense of the concept of sovereignty. If we are not internally fully sovereign, of what worth our claims to external sovereignty? The threat in Swat, because it undermines the nation from within, is more serious than any notional threat from India. The army high command should be concentrating on this and senior generals would do the nation greater service by stationing themselves in Swat rather than lolling about in Rawalpindi. Indeed, it would be no bad idea for the Rawalpindi Golf Club, where senior generals take their leisure, to close down while the troubles in FATA and Swat last. This is no time to play golf.
Afghanistan and Iraq may be stupid wars but American and British leaders make it a point of visiting their troops in both countries. Musharraf never, not once, visited FATA. He never visited Swat. Gen Kayani has gone to both places but he needs to go there more. What about President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani? At the drop of a hat they set off on foreign tours. But they can’t bring themselves to visit troops in FATA and Swat. There can be no greater shame than this.
The world has changed and so has our regional environment. War with India—-or from India’s point of view, war with Pakistan——should no longer be a possibility or an option. The nature of the threat has changed. The armed forces therefore need to revamp and restyle both their thinking and their posture. F-16s and more inter sub-continental missiles will do us little good. How many atom bombs do we have? Fifty? That should be enough for any sane notion of defence against India. If 50 atom bombs are insufficient all the world’s arms will not give us a sense of security.
We need a leaner force, more attuned to covert operations and warfare in the rugged north and northwest. The eastern frontier must become a frontier of peace if we are to devote what energies we have to the threat from within. Which doesn’t mean we lower our guard, only that we give up on meaningless warmongering. It is time to bury the notion, so beloved of the Nazria-e-Pakistan school of thought, that India is our eternal enemy. It isn’t. India is not torching our schools. It is not proscribing female education. Someone else is.
To Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, whom I once heard lecturing at a Jamaat-ud-Daawa mosque in Chakwal, I would respectfully say that the time for the kind of ‘jihad’ as promoted in the 1980s and 1990s is over. What was possible then is no longer possible now. That kind of ‘jihad’ far from serving any useful purpose or advancing any Pakistani interests now endangers the country. A farewell to ‘jihad’, turning Kalashnikovs into ploughshares, that is what Pakistan needs.
When the Bolsheviks under Lenin seized power in Russia in 1917, the First World War still raging, large parts of western Russia were under German occupation. Most of the members of the Bolshevik central committee were for continuing the war. But Lenin insisted that saving the Revolution was more important. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluded with Germany imposed humiliating terms on Russia, including the loss of the Ukraine, but Lenin accepted them in the hope that if the Revolution triumphed temporary setbacks would be of no account. Events proved him right. Germany lost the war and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk came to nothing.
Saving Pakistan from within must take priority over everything else. Notions of strategic depth and the like, of ‘jihad’ as an instrument of national policy, must finally be discarded. Folly sowed over 30 years of benighted effort has come to haunt us. High time we gave up on these ghosts from the past.
The army is pitted against the Taliban in FATA but there are persistent accusations, never persuasively denied, that it turns a blind eye to the presence of Taliban elements in and around Quetta. How long can we sustain such dichotomies?
Should the ISI be brought under ISI control? Even if it is, that would still be but a half-step. What gives the ISI a distinct imprint is its umbilical link with the army. Army officers rotate to and from it, making the ISI an extension of the army. The time may have come to consider ways of turning the ISI into a professional spy organisation like the CIA and KGB, or even RAW for that matter. These organisations are not staffed by army officers.
Immediately after the Mumbai attacks our government’s stand could have been more coherent. But as consultations with various branches of government and other political leaders got underway, some of the earlier fumbling disappeared.
This is not a Churchillian government. I think we are all agreed on this score. Even so, with all the confusion on display, Pakistan’s response to combined American and Indian pressure in 2008 has been a whole lot more steady and sensible than Gen Musharraf’s response to American pressure in 2001. Which serves to underline the distinction that the most fumbling democracy is preferable to any kind of military dictatorship.


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