Peaceful- مسالمت آمیز

2014-01-13T20:56:00.000+00:00

Ode to the forgotten

Dr Yasir Abbasi

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Dr Raza Mehdi Jafri was a young and dynamic ENT surgeon. He had graduated from a medical college in Karachi and completed his post graduate qualifications from the United Kingdom. He then returned to Karachi to continue his work. He was the son of renowned ENT surgeon Professor IH Jafri and had decided to follow in the footsteps of his father.
As a young medical student in the late 90’s, to me he represented what a doctor should be – smart, professional, ethical and innovative. When most of us thought the internet was the name of a road in the West, he had mastered using the web and his laptop to teach us. I remember learning about the anatomy of the head and neck on a rotatable image of the skull and for the first time grasping the pathways of different nerves weaving their way round it. He had also set up a website with his clinical notes and lectures on it.
He taught fearlessly in his clinics, on the patients’ bedside, and in the operating theatre. His emphasis was always to improve clinical skills coupled with empathy and impeccable bedside manners. He paid attention to all his students equally and would only be swayed and impressed by hard work and intelligence. My classmates would eagerly wait for their rotation in ENT, as they would get to spend more time with this dynamic consultant. I completed my medical school and commenced my house job in the same hospital. I do not remember him being rude or unkind to any of his patients. He had a fan base which extended from patients, students, and colleagues to other staff at the hospital.
Then something happened – something which we thought could never happen to a person like him. On 30th of May 2001, he was shot dead – murdered in front of his clinic in Gulshan-e-Iqbal locality of Karachi. The news came as a shock to everyone who knew him. We gathered at his home that night, and saw many other friends and acquaintances grieving outside. But no one knew why he was killed – shot point blank. Or rather, no one wanted to say.
We decided to go to his soyem, and that was the first time I stepped into an Imambargah. It was also the first time I found out his religious affiliation. He never wore his faith on his sleeve, and did not bring it up in any discussion. “Shia doctor killed in Karachi,” said the headlines in the newspapers. It didn’t make sense. Wasn’t he just a citizen who worked for the betterment of his people and was using his skills to improve the future of his country? What does his religious affiliation have to do with anything?
A couple of weeks later, a leaflet from a mosque I pray in caught my attention. Questioning rival schools of thought in Islam, it justified the killing of people like Dr Raza Jafri. The penny suddenly dropped. Call me naive, stupid or ignorant, but I had been unaware and could not smell the stench of extremism around me.
To those who argue that extremism in our society is a reaction to the American invasion of Afghanistan, the murder of people like Dr Raza Jafri is proof that we had plunged in to the abyss of extremism years before 9/11.
Our narrative is becoming more and more delusional each day. There are those who blame the West for all the ills in our country and there are those who blame our neighbors for all our problems. And finally, there are those who don’t give a toss and consider these discussions a waste of time because in their opinion nothing will ever change. No one is ready to accept a collective responsibility for this mess. A remedy is not possible until we accept there is something wrong. We are so busy measuring each other’s beliefs and arguing over religious rituals that we have forgotten to live.

To remain silent almost equates to being complicit

The majority in a society always has the responsibility role to protect and guard the minority from oppression and subjugation. As a person who belongs to the religious majority in Pakistan, I am ashamed to say that we have failed miserably in doing that. The least we could do is call a murder a murder, rather than finding ways of justifying this madness. There should be no ifs, ands or buts. To remain silent almost equates to being complicit.
How I wish we could have protected Dr Raza Jafri and so many others like him, who are brought to their untimely demise due to our inaction and criminal naivety, stupidity and/or ignorance. It’s not too late.

This article was first published in The Friday Times, Pakistan on 10th of January 2014:

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/ode-to-the-forgotten/

Disclaimer: I have used the picture from the internet which was freely available and do not have copyright to it. If i am infringing any copyrights please let me know and the picture will me taken off immediately.

A nation addicted to pain

2012-10-07T12:52:00.003+01:00

"Hate-mongers play a central role in our electronic and print media and have a vast following online. They spread their hatred based on half-cooked conspiracy theories"
Addiction can be vaguely described as a persistent and compulsive dependence on a substance or behaviour. Pain on the other hand can be defined as an unpleasant physical and psychological sensation, which can range from mild and localised discomfort to agony. The word pain originates from Latin, where poena means a fine or penalty.

What does this have to do with us? When you put the two together, it seems to highlight clearly our current state of affairs. As a nation, we have repeatedly over the years indulged in compulsive acts of self-inflicted harm, each time increasing the intensity of it, so that we get more ‘buzz from every hit.’ We cannot live without this pain and we seem to continue harbouring this behaviour despite the knowledge of the harm that comes from it. When we do not have any sensational or harmful event going on, we become concerned and agitated, showing signs of withdrawal and to have an immediate relief from these symptoms we cook up bizarre and erratic conspiracy theories to calm down and satisfy our spasmodic brain. Such behaviour carries the hallmark of a ‘dependence syndrome’.
Because of this dependence, we need pain to survive and wake ourselves up every morning pushing to function barely, only to realise that soon the effect wears off and we would need another dose just to avoid slipping into an impassive slumber. If we analyse the current political, economic and social climate of Pakistan, it seems we have been here before many times, with each successive episode being worse than the previous one. We remain confused as a nation, having not even agreed on the type and form of governance we prefer. When there is civilian autocracy (aka democracy) we yearn for a dictatorship and once we get what we wish for, some years later, we pour out on the streets like bloodthirsty vampires demanding a return to the status quo. We praise ad nauseam a faith-based system in a neighbouring war-torn deprived country, but when it raises its ugly head in our country, we shiver with fear. As we continue to lead our daily mundane lives in the current system, no opportunity is passed without blaming the ‘Satan-inspired’ way of life for our daily troubles and sporadic but regular catastrophes. The sooner we put an end to all this confusion the better it is for us. Generally, religion should not become solely a state affair and be used to gain popularity by elected and unelected individuals. Faith should not be used by the media to improve their ratings, earn profits or provide cheap entertainment by showing live televised conversions. Minorities should cease to be minorities as per Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s vision for Pakistan. Ideologies should not be used to guide democracy. They should remain a part of political manifestos. A democratic process and setup should be robust enough to filter out the undemocratic aspect of ideologies if they do manage to come to power.

But the question remains, how do we inflict pain on ourselves? Any action that leads to the deliberate disruption of society can be considered as harm to self. A street protest against others, becoming violent and aggressive, leading to destruction of our own assets, is a common example. Most politicians have a divisive agenda with short-term gains. Hence they start riding the popular bandwagon, when actually they should step back and try to make sense of the whole situation before resorting to fuelling the emotional rhetoric. We further damage ourselves by teaching our children distorted historical facts through our textbooks, creating a whole generation that is incapable of free thinking, which follows a national narrative when it comes to understanding our neighbours and the world around us. We dislike being stereotyped but love to stereotype others. Hate-mongers play a central role in our electronic and print media and have a vast following online. They spread their hatred based on half-cooked conspiracy theories and circumstantial facts and anyone challenging their claims is either labelled as an unpatriotic traitor or literally ‘taught a lesson or two’.
Apart from the general populace, our national institutions also confound the problem. Any institution, when given power and supported by the masses, starts behaving like an uncontrolled venomous snake that starts stinging everything around it, only to realise later on that the behaviour only leads to a destruction of its own habitat. Emotional rhetoric should not be used to guide our domestic and international policies and neither should it be used by our institutions to pass important landmark bills and/or judgements. There should be a debate reaching some consensus before important decisions are made. Corruption and nepotism plague us all, including our institutions, from parliament to the judiciary to the security establishment. This remains the biggest cause of harm to us. We all like to change the world around us but struggle to change ourselves as the first step.

We should focus on our strengths and abilities. We are a very philanthropic nation. Not many countries can boast free charitable organisations that range from education to health and much more. We need to be patient and let the system (whichever we choose it to be) take its due course. Government and the people need to focus on essential elements and prioritise our resources on things that will guarantee our survival in the long run. The following three things should be developed aggressively and should remain on the government’s agenda regardless of who comes to power: education, communication and health. Once we have created inroads in these three domains we can then start restructuring the economy. Once we achieve a position in the global economy, our investments in other countries will create the so-called ‘strategic depth’ and not the shenanigans of the deep state. I am a strong believer in people (a collection of which makes a nation) and their ability to recover and rehabilitate. Can we do it? Yes we can!

This article was first published on Daily Times Newspaper, Pakistan on 3rd October 2012:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012%5C10%5C03%5Cstory_3-10-2012_pg3_4

Drug addiction and rehabilitation

2012-09-21T10:06:00.000+01:00

IT was distressing to see pictures (Dec 14) of over 50 men and children shackled in a seminary, which is also believed to be a rehabilitation centre in Sohrab Goth, Karachi. Some of the children in the picture do not seem to be more than eight years old. It was painful to see them in shackles.

These individuals were allegedly being treated for drug addiction by clerics who had no medical or nursing background. I really doubt that such young children were actually ‘addicts’; therefore, what went on in the seminary remains a mystery.

The Afghan war in the 1980s brought heroin trade in the settled areas of Pakistan which led to an increase in drug addicts.

According to the statistics by the Sindh anti-narcotics organisation, there is an annual increase of seven per cent in drug addicts in Pakistan.

The organisation says that there are about five million drug users in the country, of which 1.5 million are heroin addicts.

This is a cause for great concern but it doesn’t mean that as a society we should incarcerate individuals suffering from this problem. There are many ways of addressing drug addiction but the most efficient and evidence-based methods are a combination of bio-psycho-social approach. There are a number of medications that can be used to help them ‘detox’ of the offending substance, and others can be used to prevent relapse.

During this period they should be supported with formal psychological therapies and social interventions which help them readjust their social network.
We do not even want to approach the sufferers of drug addiction humanely, let alone rehabilitate them. It is time robust policies were adopted to address the issue. Besides, such bogus rehabilitation centres should be outlawed.

First published as a letter in Daily Dawn Newspaper in Pakistan on 22/12/2011

http://dawn.com/2011/12/22/drug-addiction-and-rehabilitation/

The Spoils of War

2012-08-03T01:18:00.000+01:00

WHEN the Soviet army withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 there was great jubilation in the streets of the country. What a victory! But it proved short-lived. The victory turned into a quarrel and the quarrel led to civil war.

Every group and faction was trying to get as much out of the spoils of war as possible. This self-centred and egocentric attitude added to the ruin of that nation and the Afghans have yet to recover from it.

We have also been facing two wars from within one from the fanatical militants of the northwest who are now poised to take control of the whole country, the other from politicians. The second war, now over, did not involve any artillery but was waged through words and political moves. The guns were drawn and swords were crossed as soon as the two political exiles landed in this country. There was heavy personal interest on both sides. Finally one side decided to withdraw from the battle and the war was over.

Now we will see if we follow the same egocentric path that groups in our neighbouring country did or choose to show maturity and magnanimity. I fear the worst. When given the history of the two unelected representatives who are leading the country at this juncture, this fear develops into emotional anguish.

We are a nation of sore losers and arrogant winners. This should not become an obsessive and narcissistic mission to persecute a former head of state. If we do not act with extreme caution at this point in our history then there shall be no history left for us. If we turn this democratic departure into another battle, then we are all doomed.

It is true that media all over the world is biased. They are an institution running on the principles of business and their foremost goal is to achieve financial profit. The easiest way to do so is through resorting to sensationalism. But the media in Pakistan has to play a very important role now. It should highlight the misgivings and misadventures of the current government as vehemently as they have been doing against the ex-president.

We should not act as though we suffer from amnesia and should clearly remember that the present lot at the helm of affairs in the country consists of no other than the same old felons who amassed their riches abroad from looting just a decade ago.

Resilience can be described as the capacity to withstand and overcome adversity. Michael Rutter outlined

four different protective mechanisms which help an individual overcome adversity. These include reducing risk impact, reducing negative chain reaction, establishing and maintaining self-esteem and self-efficacy.

The state has to help the nation develop self-esteem by reducing the negativism which is always emanating from political circles. A sense of cohesion should not be restricted to electing representatives unopposed. It can also be used to establish systems to keep a check on the workings of their own people and future governments as well.

We need to join hands now and help build an egalitarian society. The fundamentals of any progressive nation are deeply ingrained in the distribution of justice at the grassroots level. This does not mean that we should revert to medieval practices. In fact, we should do completely the opposite.

The methods of investigation of a crime and the process of gathering evidence against a criminal should be of high standard and carried out with state of the art equipment. This must be done to ensure that while dispensing justice we do not become the tormenter and avoid miscarriages of justice.

I hope that the `coming soon` of an independent judiciary lives up to expectations and starts the suo motu unravelling of the National Reconciliation Ordinance, the `qarz utaro mulk sanwaro` and similar scandals. If the pillars of state fail the people this time, there will be no hope left and we shall continue to sink ever deeper in the abyss of corruption, inequality and moral degradation.

Economic, social and ethnic instability has led to the creation of a vast number of dissatisfied individuals. If their grievances are not addressed soon, the people will turn into mobs and mobs into groups, who will be fighting to impose their own version of justice. Such reactionary movements do not have a religious or belief system to guide them. Instead, they exploit the masses` sense of insecurity. During the French Revolution, the revolutionaries killed anyone who had soft hands as they equated them with the ruling classes.

One cannot help but quote a whole segment from The Garden of the Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. This still holds true for our oxymoronic country

“My friends and my road-fellows, pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress. Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening. Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except when its neck is laid between the sword and the block. Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.”

First published in Dawn Daily Newspaper, Pakistan on 24th of August 2008
http://archives.dawn.com/archives/26741

What is your origin?

2012-06-28T22:55:00.003+01:00

A FEW weeks ago I was chatting with a cousin who was born and brought up in Britain. He had just returned from an informal meeting at his office and appeared visibly annoyed.

On inquiring he let out a tirade of emotions because a couple of people at this meeting had asked him what his origin was. When he replied by naming the English town he was born in, they seemed dissatisfied with the answer and prodded further in a civilised manner, until they finally asked about the origin of his parents.

He appeared truly shocked at their questions and behaviour. He claimed that they had never accepted him as a native and would be reluctant to call him British. It was difficult for me to clearly understand the reasons behind his cathartic outburst. Surely it is not that bad asking about someone’s origin; we do that all the time in Pakistan!

Unesco describes culture as a “set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group. It encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, values systems, traditions and beliefs. Respecting and safeguarding culture is a matter of Human Rights [sic].” It also goes on to report that around 175 million persons are residing away from the country of their birth and one in every 10 persons in the developed regions is a migrant.

Different things can at times signify your roots. Some people can easily be identified by their names; others can be grouped together because of the similarities in their physical appearance. You can also correlate between groups of people by just noticing their cultural practices.

Our society in Pakistan is extremely heterogeneous but unfortunately we still have not come to terms with the concept of multiple identities. To be proud of your ethnicity is considered to be unpatriotic. How can persons whose ancestors have been Sindhis or Pakhtuns for hundreds of years suddenly give up being what they are and adopt just one identity which is just over 60 years old? Race or ethnicity exists at multiple levels; it varies from your genetic make-up to how you practice your culture. A completely independent subject of research is dedicated to this area known as anthropology. But unfortunately only culture has come to take the burden of race in our country.

If we start from the basics and believe that all humans are not the same and accept diversity as a fact rather than a burden, then we won’t go astray. Why is it wrong for a person to retain their cultural or genetic identity and at the same time adopt a new one? What is wrong in being a Pakistani of Sindhi or Seraiki origin or Baloch or Kashmiri origin?

A recent example can be taken from the issue of renaming the NWFP. Why are we so afraid in giving the people what rightfully belongs to them? When Chaudhry Rahmat Ali came up with the acronym of Pakistan, the second letter (A) in this name actually stood for Afghania. The people of the NWFP have actually made a compromise in agreeing to name their province Pakhtunkhwa.

The usual rhetorical argument given against renaming the province is that it will increase the sense of separatism there and it is not just Pakhtuns who live in the province. The interesting part is that we conveniently forget other provinces with similar dilemmas. Punjab still retains its name even though there is a large Seraiki population there. What about Balochistan which has both Pakhtun and Brahvi people living there in substantial numbers and how can we forget Sindh which has a large population of Pakistanis of North Indian origin (a term recently coined by Ayesha Siddiqa for mohajirs or the Urdu-speaking community).

These problems are not specific to Pakistan. In most of the developing world one group of the population is trying to suppress another on the basis of ethnic, cultural or religious differences. Even in our neighbouring country to the east, there is a great deal of ethnic tension between the north and the south. But we need to introspect first before we are even eligible to comment on others.

We cannot have a dialogue if we all think the same. So difference is necessary. And we all know that the smaller the differences, the more fiery the dialogue may become. This can be avoided by having a clear ideology and an agenda which caters to the needs of everyone. But for this to happen we need to have sincere politicians and genuine political will, a very rare entity to come across in Pakistan.

We should be celebrating our ethno-cultural diversity rather than suppressing it. This diversity should be our collective strength rather than weakness. By accepting we are different at many levels we can become more tolerant of each other. The more rights we give to different ethnic groups the more they will participate in being true stakeholders in the country. We should be studying different ethnic groups at an academic level and should encourage research students to do PhDs in this area so that it gives us more insight into different ways of life and hence into our society. We really need to create a truly pluralistic society otherwise we shall disintegrate into the realm of history without a trace.The road ahead of us is not an easy one. We are facing grave difficulties in the form of economic instability, deep-rooted terrorism and morally corrupt politicians. If we sincerely want our children to live in a country of civilised people we really need to do something now. We can start by accepting our friends and neighbours with an open heart and respect their right to love, live and propagate their culture and religion.

http://archives.dawn.com/2008/08/07/op.htm#2

CXR

2012-02-26T23:19:00.000+00:00

He woke up with a sudden jolt and it felt as if someone had been calling out his name whilst he was sleeping. Was it a hypnopompic hallucination? It was very dark and cold, he felt really disorientated. The stench of urine was overwhelming and made him nauseous. He suddenly started retching and continued to vomit. It was difficult to tell how long he continued to vomit; he had lost all sense of time and space.

He gradually became more aware of himself and as he did, he had an uneasy feeling of not having any clothes on his body and being wet all over. It was not easy to decipher why he was wet, was it his own sweat? Had he been in the water? Did he drown and now woke up in hell?

He tried hard to focus and remember where he was but couldn’t make any sense. By this time his eyes got used to the darkness and his surrounding made a little bit of sense. He could vaguely make out the walls of a very small room. It was so small he thought he had been buried alive. If this was somebody’s idea of a practical joke, he wasn’t laughing; not even smiling. All of a sudden he heard faint voices coming from a distance; he couldn’t make it who they were or what they were saying. Was he hallucinating now? He also heard some more scuffled noises, was that the sound of dogs barking in the background? This sent a chilling sense of fear down his spine as if he was conditioned to this. Unable to understand his bodily reaction, he tried to move but immediately realised that he was held down by something around his neck and feet.

He then experienced an uneasy feeling, like there was someone else in the room. No, not one but a few others! But how could that be? It is such a small room? Had he really lost his mind? Was he dead or was he dreaming, infact was this a nightmare? With all those thoughts rushing through his mind, he violently struggled to recall how he got here. Some fleeting thoughts poured in but they were disjointed. A few images flashed in his mind, a barren land, the sea, a group of people around him- he didn’t recognise any of them. Maybe there was a clue there. He closed his eyes and concentrated harder, another image flashed of him being stripped, he couldn’t understand why and he felt too disorientated to make sense of any of this information.

When he tried opening his eyes again, something hard and powerful hit his face so hard that he could taste the blood gushing out of the corners of his mouth. He shut his eyes again thinking that it would take away this merciless infliction of pain. But to his horror, he had vivid images of a dog barking loudly inches away from his face. The image was so real that he could actually feel the warmth of the animal’s breath. To his surprise he could now feel the animal’s saliva dripping on his face. How could that be? This animal wasn’t real, then how can his senses experience it? Had he lost his mind and all this was a bad psychotic experience?

Right at this point he felt a gush of water on his face. It continued and there was no sign of it stopping. He couldn’t breathe; it felt like he was drowning. He started gasping for air. Who is doing this? Why are they doing this to me? Why won’t it stop? I can’t take it anymore.

Then something weird happened. It all started to make sense to him, all his thoughts were no longer scattered. All the images were now playing in his mind in the sequence which made perfect sense.

He woke up with a sudden jolt and it felt as if someone had been calling out his name whilst he was sleeping. He then heard a soft voice say “Wake up” “Wake up” “It’s just a nightmare.” Dreading what he would see, he slowly opened his eyes. He saw the image of a saintly women leaning over him, her eyes were red as if she had just woken up or had been crying recently. He felt disorientated and bewildered again. “It was so real” he said in a croaked and parched voice, finding it difficult to get his words out. “Don’t worry, I am here with you now, go back to sleep” said the women and gave him a gentle hug whilst caressing his hair and patting his back as if to help him to sleep like you do with an infant.

He felt very calm, infact too calm. He could not figure out what was real and what wasn’t. If this was a dream, he didn’t want it to end. He didn’t care about anything anymore, as he closed his eyes to sleep he felt eternally blissful. Everything is going to be all right now, he thought.

“Don’t be such a Taliban”

2011-09-12T15:59:00.002+01:00

The Pakistani nation slowly awoke from its slumber after a video was aired on their TV sets on 3^rd of April 2009. Still half asleep, the nation wondered whether they were experiencing a form of hypnopompic hallucination as they watched the footage which was reminiscent of pre-historic and unruly times. The long flowing beards, the head turbans and the medieval crowd seemed familiar, an image from the near past but from another neighbouring country. Could this really be Swat in Pakistan?

Immediately the talk shows and other TV programmes on the local Pakistani media sprung into action. There were people who were ecstatic at the punishment awarded to this 17year old unfortunate girl. “The laws of the Sharia have been implemented” they gloated. Others condemned the act, while most seemed confused and dissonant. This dissonance was produced by the conflict going on in their mind: flogging is a religious punishment (Surah 24:2), but actually seeing it, produces uncomfortable emotions.

But since this is not a theological discussion it is best avoided going into the details.

There is a common belief that the Taliban are not only very swift in dispensing justice but also provide the purest form of judgements under their rule. This is only a myth. They are no doubt, good in identifying crime and associating that with punishment, but providing justice is the last thing they do. They are surely very swift in imposing punishment.

After identifying a crime, the most extensive method of investigation should take place. The punishment only comes at the very end. This is only done to avoid miscarriages of justice; as such severe punishments cannot be reversed.

In the case of this ill-fated Swati girl, apart from the stringent pre-requisites all the four witnesses (if they really existed) had to fulfil, it is pertinent to understand that all four witnesses must provide evidence that they found the man and woman in flagrante delicto (while the crime is blazing). Only and only then, can we implicate both of them of such a heinous crime.

And it is also clear in the grainy footage that the hapless 17 year old girl is bearing the brunt of the crime all alone, what about the other alleged perpetrator, the man.

Our nation is becoming even more divisive over such issues. Last year on a visit to Karachi, an acquaintance offered me a foreign and specially ‘brewed and fermented’ drink. When the reason for refusal cited was religious in nature, the spontaneous response was “Don’t be such a Taliban, Yaar.”

It is evident that we have become an excessively polarized society. The people who were liberal are becoming even more accommodating. And those who were conservative in their opinions are becoming more rigid and extreme in their views.

These things don’t happen overnight or even in a decade. The media and politicians in response to the brutalities of the Taliban repeat the same rhetorical argument and blame Musharaff and the War on Terror for the demise of our society.

The War on Terror could have acted as a catalyst, but this was 30 years in the making. We are reaping the fruits of the poison sowed by General Zia-ul-Haq’s repressive era. We have destroyed a whole generation just to help another country’s proxy war and to fulfill our illusive dream of ‘strategic depth.’

Our nation immediately goes into denial following such episodes of barbarity. The blame usually goes to phantom Indian, American and/or Jewish spies. To make matters more contradictory we believe the current Taliban in Pakistan are really puppets of some foreign enemy country but at the same time make peace deals with them and support their ideological stance on religion.

The first step in treating a disease is to accept that one is ill and then seek help. We need to accept we have a problem and that these criminals and terrorist are misguided Muslims rather than chanting the usual non-pragmatic slogan “These acts can never be perpetrated by any Muslim”

The events in Swat should have been be a wakeup call for all of us, I guess not. It is already too late; the footage aired on the 3^rd of April was just a preview of the original long and sad movie. If we do not awaken now I am afraid we shall slip into a deep abyss of irrationality and darkness.

The Taliban are known historically to impose their views on others forcefully and persecute those who hold a view contrary to theirs. It is hoped that one day they are able comprehend Islam in its truest sense and take example from Imam Shafa’I, who once said:

“I am convinced about the veracity of my opinions, but I do consider it likely that they may turn out to be incorrect. Likewise, I am convinced about the incorrectness of the views different from mine, but I do concede the possibility that they may turn out to be correct.”

Far From the Stoning Crowd

2011-04-04T21:16:00.002+01:00

There has been evidence of the treatment of mental illness from the Egyptian civilization. The skulls discovered belonging to that era had signs of trephination (a hole in the skull) signifying procedures which crudely resemble what we now call as lobotomy.

The perception of psychiatric illness has been changing over the ages. Their understanding has evolved from these patients being considered as devils and witches to realising the biological origins of these disorders.

The treatment of mental health problems has also been evolving over the years. During the 15^th century in an effort to exclude them from society they were sent on ships known literally as ‘ship of fools.’ In the 17^th and 18^th century they were more ‘pathologised’ and were systematically locked up in institutions called asylums. It was only after the 19^th century that there came a more biological understanding and after the introduction of neuroleptic medications in the 1950’s the management of such illnesses changed drastically.

There still exist a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about psychiatric disorders through out the world. Some people in the Caribbean attribute the occurrence of mental illness to voodoo magic, in Nigeria they label them as the work of Satan and a cause of all the ills, while in the west there are anti-psychiatry movements like Scientology (brought to more fame by the actor Tom Cruise).

When you visit

Pakistan

especially the inner cities, it is hard not to notice certain individuals roaming around in a dishevelled state. They appear to be talking to themselves, acting in a bizarre manner or are sitting reclusively in a corner with their incongruent possessions around them. These individuals are almost an implicit but ignored part of our society, roaming around aimlessly and surviving on the charity of a few philanthropists.

If assessed thoroughly it will bee seen that most of these individuals would probably be victims of mental illnesses and have reached this stage after years of neglect and abandonment by the society. There is a range of psychiatric disorders which can be the cause of such presentations. Severe and enduring mental problems like Schizophrenia and Bipolar affective disorder if left untreated can have devastating effects on the individuals and their surroundings. In fact there is an inverse relationship between the outcome of the treatment and the ‘duration of untreated psychosis.’

Some might have learning disabilities (mental retardation), others may suffer from a severe form of depression which can be quite debilitating, while others could have a burnt out personality disorder like Diogenes syndrome. People suffering from the latter are known to have a reclusive lifestyle, expressive of a hostile attitude and living in squalors.

These individuals should be looked after and cared for by the state. Instead not only are they ignored but are also harassed by the public. In some cases they are chased around by young children while in others they are pestered by being hit with stones. This image has been portrayed in a number of movies and TV dramas produced with in the subcontinent. Interestingly a famous song from the movie Layla & Majnun has the following lyrics “Koi Pathar Say na maray meray dewanay ko” (please do not hit my deranged lover with stones).

It is a mystery where the tradition of stoning the 'deranged' comes from and why we still do it. Some anecdotes show that certain archaic beliefs still prevails regarding the causes of mental illness. They think that such people have been possessed by the devil and as the devil is stoned during the Hajj then we should do the same. At times throwing of stones at such individuals can be a retaliatory action.

There is great stigma attached to being mentally ill, hence the populace thinks it is acceptable to act in this way. They are looked upon as gibbering lunatics and sometimes it is felt that these people are being punished for their illness as if they deserve this sort of treatment.

In order to eliminate the diseased and create the pure Aryan race the Nazi made efforts to get ‘rid’ of people with any disability. It has been estimated that over 200,000 individuals with mental disorders of all subtypes were put to death during their era.

If we do not live up to the expectation of safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable members of our society then we are no better than such brutal regimes. There should be an immediate end to such inhumane and foolish behaviour. We need to wake up and recognise the needs of the people in need, especially the mentally ill. Whereas the lack of funds might be a genuine reason for the inability to treat them medically, but how can we explain our behaviour of throwing stones?

The role of psychiatry is becoming ever so important in this world. Mental illness ranked second only to ischemic heart disease in magnitude of disease burden from the Global Burden of Disease study. There is an increasing demand on this profession and this is even more important for a country like Pakistan, where the true magnitude of mental illness is unknown and very few people have access to mental health facilities, especially in the rural area.

There is a need for the initiation of massive awareness campaign in Pakistan, so that people are not only able to seek help at the earliest, but should also be responsible for treating the mentally ill with the long overdue respect, love and affection that they really deserve.

The ‘brainwash’ conspiracy

2011-02-13T23:12:00.001+00:00

Insanity in individuals is something rare — but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.— Friedrich Nietzsche

THE word ‘brainwashing’ has been used loosely in our media for quite some time now.

It has been employed to describe how the West is trying to westernise us, to point to an Indian conspiracy to promote ‘Bollywoodisation’ and, more recently, to voice concern about the Talibanisation of our youth.

It is believed that the term was originally coined in 1950 and was later used indiscriminately in the western media to describe how communist regimes coercively persuaded their citizens or systematically instilled certain beliefs and attitudes in the masses. There were also reports during the Korean War of the 1950s of captors brainwashing American prisoners of wars. Apparently 21 such POWs refused to go back to the US after release.

There were also movies like The Manchurian Candidate (artificial thought control) and Conspiracy Theory (mind-control drugs) which depicted the use of such practices by the American secret services. But what exactly is brainwashing? Unfortunately, so much fiction abounds that it is hard to differentiate myth from reality.

Some psychologists refer to the phenomenon as ‘thought reform’ or‘re-education’. The three main principles of re-education are repetition, activity pedagogics, and criticism and self-criticism. To elaborate, this would involve repeating things until they have been stamped on the memory; not giving subjects any time to think on their own by keeping them engaged in various activities at all times; and making the person who is being re-educated feel that he or she is under constant threat of being disliked.

This is a contentious concept and even those who believe brainwashing is possible think it occurs in a less severe form than the media portrays it to be. There is no particular drug which can be used to control or brainwash people. However, there have been reports of some security agencies using certain drugs to get the truth out of captured subjects. Known as truth serums, they could include substances like ethanol, temazepam and various barbiturates but the most common drug alleged to be used is sodium thiopental, an anaesthetic induction agent. These are mainly sedatives that impair the individual’s judgment and higher cognitive functions. There is still a lack of true research evidence of whether such intrusive attempts are successful in obtaining the correct information.

Whereas the outright transformation of a person still remains fictional in nature, the possibility of drastic attitude change is something that is more common in our society. Attitude modification can be explained by certain psychological theories. A behaviour heightens or lessens depending on whether it is rewarded or punished, i.e. reinforced positively or negatively. We, and children in particular, also imitate observed behaviour, especially that of people held in high esteem such as pop stars, actors, parents, religious scholars, etc.

Society plays a very important role in shaping our personalities and behaviour towards others. We fear that some religious fanatic might brainwash our children into an extremist, but we forget that social influences are at play every minute of every day. When we try to justify atrocities such as the Wah or Marriott bombings or when we shout out in joy at dreadful events such as 9/11 or 7/7 in front of our children, we are as responsible for creating future suicide bombers as anyone else.

The role of the media in shaping our society cannot be ignored any longer in Pakistan. There are too many talk shows with loose-tongued presenters who should be held responsible for giving reckless statements. There is a particular talk show whose anchor usually tries to present lies as facts. The media also needs to be more responsible when reporting sensitive news or flashing images of terrorist attacks. By repeatedly exposing our children to such gruesome images we are desensitising them and increasing their threshold for tolerating violence and normalising such actions. Parents too should take more responsibility for decreasing their children’s exposure to violent and aggressive movies, TV shows and video games. It is through this combination of ways that we change other people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, or in other words brainwash them.

Our nation also seems to be suffering from a syndrome called the ‘victim mentality’ where individuals believe that no matter what happens they are the victims. This seems to have reached epidemic proportions and is developing into a mass hysteria. We continue to blame others as a reflex, without introspection and an examination of our own fault lines. This has created a nihilist national psyche which is leading us down the road of self-destruction. Instead of blaming any one person, group or country for this mess, we need to stand up and take collective responsibility.

We as a nation can still make it through these turbulent times but we will need to put our house in order first. We need to understand that two wrongs do not make a right. If someone has mistreated us somewhere, retaliating in similar fashion is not the solution. If the American bombings are wrong then the Taliban bombings are wrong. Nothing and absolutely nothing justifies the killing of innocent civilians. We need to fight this fanatical mindset which is creeping slowly and gradually into our society and leaving it plagued. If we don’t teach our children what true justice is now, then there is no stopping them from acting unjustly when they grow up.

During a recent discussion on an internet forum, a friend mentioned 1984, the George Orwell novel about a totalitarian state. It seems that apart from the many similarities between that fictional state and the Taliban mindset, there was one particular thing which was most similar, the three slogans of Big Brother’s regime: “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”.

The writer is a psychiatrist based in the UK.

Originally published in Dawn Newspaper in Pakistan on 07/10/2008

PEACEFUL- مسالمت آمیز

2011-02-13T22:21:00.000+00:00

Peaceful
is the one
who's not concerned
with having more or less.
Unbound by name and fame
he is free from sorrow
from the world and mostly from
themselves.......
By: Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (RUMI)