February 27, 2005

Media Monitor South Asia: 2004

Edited by Hussain Naqi Safma, 09 Lower Ground, Eden Heights, Jail Road, Lahore.

Tel: 042-5879251, 5879253.

Fax: 042-5879254

Email:media-monitor@southasianmedia.net

Website: www.southasianmedia.net163pp. Price not listed

THE state of the media in South Asia differs from country to country. It is, therefore, unwise to generalize. But on the whole it can be said that the media in each country reflects the level of political development in that country.

India has had an uninterrupted political and democratic process since independence. Its press has never operated under state repression or control, except for the brief period of Emergency rule under Mrs Indira Gandhi. Pakistan presents an altogether different picture: the media, like other democratic institutions, has suffered under long periods of outright military dictatorship or authoritarian rule.

Yet, it is interesting that looking at the present state of the media in the two countries, one finds few substantial differences. In both countries, the print and broadcast media are lively, probing and inquisitive. There are problems with both: in Pakistan, for instance, we haven’t still quite managed to break free from the old mindset on issues of nationalism and religion, and in India some of the grand design attitudes of governments in New Delhi has also been reflected in the press. Bangladesh has had a chequered history of political ups and downs, but its media has remained resilient.

In the existing generally free environment governing the media in South Asia, it is forgotten how many dangers still lurk. It is in this context that The South Asia Free Media Association’s second Media Monitor report gains inestimable value. It not only broadly draws attention to media laws that circumscribe freedom and to the lack of access to information, but also documents acts of coercion and intimidation suffered by journalists in Saarc member states.

There is pressure from state intelligence agencies, from political groupings and from religious organizations. There are details of incidents, and also several overviews. As Safma’s secretary-general, Imtiaz Alam, points out, despite the general air of press freedom, no state in South Asia is ready to accept the adversarial role of media as a watchdog of civil society, nor has any state come up with an effective law to ensure the fundamental right to information. National security continues to colour news and articles, although the concept of national security may be based solely on the perceptions of the regime in power.

The 159-page Monitor, which has been edited by Hussain Naqi, includes the text of the declaration issued at the conclusion of the first Saarc journalists’ summit held in Islamabad last year. It is hoped that as the region’s dominant players, Pakistan and India, move closer to a normal relationship, the media in each country too would gain from greater interaction and that this in turn would have a liberalizing influence throughout the region. The report would have delighted the heart of that old chonrincler of the state of the media, the late Zamir Niazi.— T.M.


Comic Century: An Unreliable History of the 20th Century

By Gautam Bhatia

Illustrated by Vishwajyoti Ghosh

Penguin India. For more information log on to www.penguinbooksindia.com

ISBN 014303140-6313pp. Indian Rs350

GAUTAM Bhatia writes with an elegance that is hard to ignore; his interests are richly varied and the breadth of knowledge that goes with it is genuinely impressive. A cursory glance at the contents section of his book Comic Century: An Unreliable History of the 20th Century assured me that I had literally within my grasp 313 pages of sparkling wit and humour. This time round first impressions were false. I searched the entire length and breadth of this volume for a reason to laugh — yet the humour remained strangely illusive.

Comic Century is an ambitious venture. An entirely fictional, wildly imaginary re-writing of an eclectic collection of events and characters that dominated the previous century, with an intention to imbue them with a ridiculous and humorous hue. The book is divided into four sections; “The war decades”, encompassing the First and Second World Wars, “The great divide” drawing material from the cold war years, “End of the Cold War” and finally “The liberal decades”.

“The war decades” includes chapters on the women’s suffrage movement, the Bolshevik revolution, Hitler and Einstein. “The great divide” fictionalizes the Kitchen Debate, Watergate, the landing on the moon, Marilyn Monroe, Kennedy and lots more. “The end of the Cold War” has chapters on Clinton, Bollywood and Woody Allen. The last section, “The liberal decades” dwells on postmodern architecture, email, homosexuality and AIDS.

Beyond the contents pages and the introduction lies an acutely disappointing anticlimax. The rich and colourful events used by Bhatia as grist to his humor making mills are never converted into products even remotely funny. He has remarkable writing skills a great command of history, art and culture but sadly little to offer in the form of humour.

Bhatia does not write from any particular ideological perspective or with any specific agenda in mind except “to see the distant heroic acts and ideas in a comic light”. This unbiased, focused, humour for humour’s sake approach to writing humour definitely deserves applause. To this end Bhatia uses every trick in the book. He exaggerates, embellishes, and spins a web of complete fiction around historical events and personalities, yet some nameless ingredient still remains missing from this effort. Maybe it is true that writing humor requires a large amount of innate ability, a natural flair for this genre of writing, with technique and subject playing minor parts in the end result. n — Dr Ali Madni


Everyday Magic: Discover Your Natural Powers of Intuition

By Vivianne Crowley

Penguin Books. Available with Paramount Books, 152/O, Block 2, PECH Society, Karachi-75400

Tel: 021-4310030. Email: paramount@cyber.net.pk

ISBN 0-141-00793-1294pp. Rs445

IF you are a fan of television’s “Bewitched” or “Charmed”, or simply curious about magic, then check out Everyday Magic: Discover Your Natural Powers of Intuition by Vivianne Crowley. A very accessible, easy-to-read introduction to “magic in the modern world”, this guidebook proposes that we can easily and successfully integrate magic into our daily lives by “treating it as an extension of ourselves” and a part of our natural intuition.

Crowley is an expert in the field and a long-standing practising witch. She is also a PhD psychologist, university lecturer and management consultant! As a teenager, she found teachers who guided her in developing her magical capabilities and today is a believer that we all possess untapped natural magic. She has written at length on the topic and her earlier books include Wicca: The Old Religion in the New Millennium and A Woman’s Guide to Earth Traditions.

Her writing style is very clear and precise, without many digressions. The chapters are usually short and many are quite fun. For instance, chapter 7: “Magic and the body”, chapter 11: “Waving a magick (sic) wand” and chapter 16: “Travel and other Mercury magic” are full of little-known facts and fun anecdotes, which even if over the top, are still enjoyable reading. “Magic and the body” has very interesting but not always effective advice on losing weight (“Thinking thin”) and “fertility” (“Fertility magic” and “Conceiving”) by visualizing the end results, that is “thinking yourself pregnant”. Similarly, chapter 16 explores “Reducing your visibility” by suggesting “Close your chakras except for the top and the bottom and visualize three parallel blue rings around your body — one around your head, one around your trunk, and one around your legs. Still your mind and think about nothing, so no one picks up your thought pattern. Walk straight by.” Ever eager to check our facts out, B&A tried out this spell on numerous test subjects but no volunteer has successfully become visible as yet!

In other areas, Crowley is more practical. Chapter 15 has a popular section on “Love spells” which advises, “rather than doing a particular spell to make a person fall in love with you, magic will work better if you do a spell to make yourself more attractive to others. This will give you self-confidence and it’s the self-confident who win in the dating game.”

The author also addresses many other areas including dreams, divination, chakras, crystals, healing, tarot, wands, astrology and planetary magic and homemade incenses and oils. Where Everyday Magic is at its weakest is in her detailed explanations on the importance of the seasonal changes and the Wiccan holy days are unnecessary and some of her “quick pointers” for practice at the end of chapters are impractical. — Hamida Dawood


The Unholy War: Religious Militancy Sectarian Violence in Pakistan

Centre for Democratic Governance, The Network for Consumer Protection,

40-A Ramazan Plaza, G-9 Markaz, Islamabad.

E-mail: edge@thenetwork.org.pk

Websites: www.edge.org.pk  www.thenetwork.org.pk

ISBN 969-8807-13-635pp. Price not listed

THE publication under review is supported by The Asia Foundation and the US Agency for International Development. It is a research paper which intensively analyzes the factors responsible for the eruption of religious and sectarian violence in Pakistan, the interplay of international and internal forces and the resultant wear and tear of civil society.

Synthesizing the historical past, the role of the state and political parties, the social and economic factors leading to the division of population in the haves and the haves not, the absence of a strong criminal justice system and a weak democratic governance — the paper offers recommendations to combat violence and promote a democratic culture.

Some of the recommendations are: to promote democratic culture of dialogue and debate instead of bullets and bloodshed through much of the Muslim world including Pakistan Pakistan represents a significant mosaic of cultural, sectarian and religious diversity. This diversity needs to be adequately recognized and respected. The international community has a major obligation to provide long overdue justice to Muslims as also to other oppressed humanity.

There is a need to educate the misguided Muslim youth that violence is not a solution to their aspirations and demands. Our universities and social science research organizations should be encouraged and supported to undertake research in conflict resolution focusing on religious and sectarian violence. The government should concentrate on the social sector and ensure free and compulsory education, employment creation and poverty elimination, since these economic and social factors result in the spiral of violence.

Steps should be taken to stop the proliferation of small arms. There is a need to critically evaluate the influence of violence and crimes in movies on Pakistani youth. Such trends in the entertainment industry should be curtailed. Madressah education should be reformed and brought into the mainstream.

Religious scholars of different orientation need to work collectively to help diffuse religious hatred and violence and promote the message of peace.

Keeping in view the long and bloody history of campus violence in Pakistan there is an urgent need to reassess the role of the educational institutions in the grooming of leadership. The rule of law should be established. All institutions of the state, civil society and public at large should join hands together for the purpose.

To sum up, the study supports promotion of a democratic culture through dialogue and debate and condemns political repression whether internal or international.

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