This piece was exclusive done for PTH.

The war on human mind; Conspiracy or not – who should decide?

 

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” – Philip K. Dick

 

We have been watching the so called democratic governments around the world, using words to enchain millions of minds and turn people into their obedient machines without a will and without any thoughtfulness in their actions beyond the lies are they are fed to, by their leaders – read role model, for many. What really makes words a bigger threat to freedom, justice, and truth than bullets is how they manipulate minds of the masses into submission. I call it speech enslavement, – they use words to bring people to compliance.

 

 

I’d like to mention a rather relative expression here that we all have so often heard of and most of us even despise; “conspiracy theory”. What is conspiracy theory really? Have we ever considered how often we have watched leaders user this term to shrug off things and how many times have this been an alternative answer to rather off beating questions? The term “conspiracy theory” has thrown in more to the obliteration and enslavement of people in Pakistan than the oligarchical Establishment’s assassinations of reformers like Hakeem Saeed, Salman Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, Saleem Shahzad and other truth-telling speech a’meliorators. The stigma surrounding ideas and topics that are collectively referred to as “conspiracy theories” thwarts away the possible critical thinking among the masses avoiding to reveal the exact intentions of their biased leaders and the policies ratified by their governments.

 

 

The say that matters like 9/11 truth or the Kerry Lugar Bill are out of bounds and don’t belong in proper political discussion is an attack on free speech and justice. It is actually very simple to understand. Whenever an idea or opinion is demarcated as crazy, paranoid, or cynical by ‘politically privileged’ and the Establishment it means they are afraid and have something to hide. From President Musharaf to Zardari and PM Gilani, everyone has warned us publically to stay away from conspiracy theories on severe national occasions. Why is there any need to limiting the thought process? Who is to decide which theory is a conspiracy, unless the both sides of the coin are really properly examined?

 

 

We have long watched words shape a people’s destiny for good or evil, hide ugly truths from the people, and protect the powerful from retribution. There are numerous examples when certain terms are used to kill the free debate of ideas and ban critical opinion from mainstream discussion. Most modern rebellions are brought about with words and ideas. Our government manipulating the truth against an open and measurable debate is no exception.

 

 

Unlike the Chinese and Soviet communists who got rid of their political enemies by killing them by the truckload, today we see a differential strategy of collectivist tyranny on the masses within and abroad, by the west. Right now we are suffering from the worst form of speech enslavement, where freedom of speech is not just manipulated, it happens to be the chief ‘instrument’ of enslavement. A slow, gradual, step-by-step process of governments relying mainly on propaganda, censorship, mental brainwashing, political harassment, cleansing of history in the people’s minds, subversive advertising, psychological conditioning, and perception management techniques. That’s why I call it speech enslavement.

 

 

Instead of banging heads and crushing skulls through the front door like the Soviets and Chinese did when their stubborn enemies resisted their draconian policies, the totalitarian revolutionaries came through the back door, silently, secretly, like petty thieves, without causing too much of an alarm. Evidently so, large portion of our population has been slumbering throughout the past six decades, undeterred by the screaming of “conspiracy theorists” who are raising the fear that tyrants and thieves have broken into the house and seek to burn it down to the ground.

 

 

Freedom of speech is threatened by words, not guns. Words like “conspiracy theorists” and “domestic terrorist” stop critical thought from naturally maturing into an informed opinion about history and future.

 

 

Such words are words of darkness, evil, tyranny, and ignorance. They not only dilapidate free thought but also vilify freedom fighters (Salman Taseer), journalists who ask ‘un-rhetorical’ questions (Omer Cheema), politically awakened individuals (Saba Dashtyaar), law abiding citizens (Mukhtara Mai), true parliamentarians (Marvi Memon), and patriots who support the principles of freedom (Saleem Shahzad).

 

 

Filed under: 2011, Catastrophie, Conspiracy theories, Freedom of Speech, Hope, Love, Pakistan, Revolution, Silencing Pakistan, US, World peace

This article was earlier published at Dawn.com

With 4.4 million Pakistanis logged into Facebook, how many of them will be willing to take on well with the new Google+?

 

 

Friday was a happening day on the web. Something made a lot of people curious and excited. For many, something got better. Google’s brand new social media network called Google+ opened its Beta doors to users all over the world. The response was so overwhelming that Vic Gundotra, Google’s VP Engineering said, “We’ve shut down invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!”

I was one of the few who made it in, and so far I can tell, Google+ is off to a good start, far better than Google’s previous efforts, Google Wave and Google Buzz. From privacy to flexibility and design, Google+ seems to ‘get it’

As Matt Warman, the Consumer Technology Editor at Daily Telegraph (UK) said to me for DAWN, “Google+ is much more than a new version of Buzz – it’s the beginnings of integrating social networking into every service that Google offers. So search, documents, email and all Google’s major ideas are, from now on, going to have a social element.” The web is buzzing with questions and remarks on whether Facebook and Twitter will be at loss with Google+, but it’ll be an over-estimator to state anything like that at this point. Especially when we see how Social Media is getting more collaborative than separate-ive.

“It’s early days – Facebook doesn’t need to feel threatened yet, but Google+ is soon going to offer games and all the ‘time-wasting’ options that have made the world’s biggest social network so successful. When it all comes together – when Circles, for instance, is mainstream – then Google+ has the makings of a step change in Google’s place in the web,“ adds Matt Warman.

According to a Presentation done by CIO Pakistan there are about 1.9 million Twitter users and 2 to 2.8 million unique visitors from Pakistan on Facebook who generate about 600 million page views. With this capacity if more than 4.4 million Pakistanis are logged into Facebook, how many of them will really be willing to take on well with the rather new Google+?

 

Badar Khushnood, Google’s Country representative of Pakistan, mentioned while we were discussing scope of social media and blogging in Pakistan with a tech group, that Google+ has indeed a huge potential. With about 22 million Internet users, Badar says Pakistan is one of the leading thorough followers of Google products, e.g: most web publishers here use Google AdSence and other products for their online presence and promotions. The best holder for Google+ would be its capability to Integrate. With all your Mail, Photo, Documents and Google Reader etc in one place, you don’t have to jump into another medium to share it. Google+ is already integrated into the navigation bar at the top right of Google products; letting you monitor all your Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) while you directly share content with friends without ever having to jump around all over the web.

 

Badar Khushnood pointed out a tremendous feature called Take Out, which enables you to create your backup in transferable data anytime you want. This data can be downloaded or transferred to any other social medium in case you’d want to switch to another network or go back to your old. So if you don’t like it here, you can take all your friends, photos, contacts and messages back to another network.

What you’ll love most about Google+ is that it could differentiate itself swiftly by making itself the destination for virtual hangouts. This group video chat feature can incredibly cater diverse business and informal social video experiences and could easily evolve in many ways. It crosses the boundaries and limitations that Skype users had to face and has built in smart sensors that enhance your video chat experience.

 

Rabia Gharib, Editor in Chief of CIO Pakistan puts it right; “The concept of not having to network within one site, and open the entire web to it, makes more sense. The downside, however, is that the content may not get as much attention as it does on Facebook’s singular location. But just like “let’s Google it” has become synonymous for search, “let’s Facebook it” has become synonymous for sharing content with a network. Google+ and Facebook could operate in tandem. I doubt they will be able to ‘steal’ each others users.”

 

While most experts find optimism in Google+’s capacity to amalgamate options and other Google products together in one place, making it a port for all your communications to take off from, I find Circles the most rocking and sundry, where I can distribute my customized communication business and friendship-wise!

Filed under: Pakistan

Earlier appeared in Salon Blog.

 

Many journalists in Pakistan think a hundred times before filing a story, fearing revealing some information may annoy important and powerful elements. It’s really a choice to make, between being there for your children & family and being there for the rest of the society. I know this for a fact, as I have seen close, when a loving father and courageous journalist Saleem Shahzad consciously made this choice so many times in his life. Threats were perpetual and predictable for him, but he’d rather be a spirited journalist than write boondoggle reports. It’s a tragedy today that after this colossal sacrifice of his own life, his family is left with frozen bank accounts and has no real-time monetary of legal support from the Govt or the Journalist community itself. His friends who protested for him are now threatened and attacked. Recently Carol Anne Grayson has been getting perpetual threats from the Pak Cyber police dept. Yes, there have been noise in the media, questions raised and inquiries set forth, but dharnas and protests have only been ‘vitually’ felt.

When Rehman Malik (Interior Minister of Pakistan) promised to Shahzad’s family Hamza Ameer, at the funeral in front of the media that the Gov will take care of the expenditures made till his burial and also take care of his children’s education expenses, I doubted his generosity could rather be synthetic and only meant to utilize the Photo-Opp, and apparently I was right. No one heard from Rehman Malik after that, no funds ever reached the family, nor has there been any follow-ups with the current family rep Hamza (Shahzad’s bro in law) ever since. Instead Saleem’s book has now been banned by the government in Pakistan and if you try to fly in the book from UK, it will be confiscated from you right at the airport. Isn’t this a sufficiently strong evidence of the fact that proves, whatever these apparatchiks are throwing curtains on actually has truth in it? But, it’s just not about what’s in the book and what is so grave in it. It’s really about the permissibilty of these actions that ‘we’ collectively allow to happen, by not pressing enough.

Why truth is muzzled conveniently in Pakistan, is because of this intertwined system of deception that is created by the demagogues and how it is supported largely by our own ‘corrupt-friendly’ silence. The most that our audacious lot does is protest outside of press clubs and light candles everytime a voice is stifled, not yet learning that these vigils and chants are taking us not an inch farther from another murder. Worse still, in some areas we don’t even find protestors. This dearth of recognition by the community and the mainstream media has encouraged escalating violence in Baluchistan and the nearby war zones. Malik Siraj Akbar has been pressing these issue in his popular online Baloch Paper  called The Baloch Hal (http://www.thebalochhal.com/). In Balochistan, at times journalists who are killed in the line of duty, are neither mentioned at their city’s press clubs, nor is their sacrifice covered aptly by their own news agencies.

Saleem Shahzad’s murder was brought to the forefront universally, but will something be done by the journalist community that is big enough to deal with future threats and anticipate forthcoming challenges. The cameraman Abdul Salam Soomro and reporter Zahid Khokar who covered the recent brutal killing of youth by the Rangers are now on the run, after Soomro got several threats from agencies. It’s for these insecure agencies to realise and understand that no institution should be above criticism or law.  Instead they call names to journalists who reveal the truth, entitle them as muckrakers, abduct them and kill them.  It’s a shame that in this situation, we continue to hide behind our fears instead of standing up for those who bring us the truth.

Everytime this nation’s friends are silenced, we get all upset, make a lot of noise, shed a lot of tears and endlessly blog about it, but what difference does it make when we inadvertently ignore to recognize  their efforts while they are still alive. We must realize that making someone’s death a front-burner issue does not protect the living man.

 

Filed under: 2011, Catastrophie, Conspiracy theories, Follow, Hope, ISI, Journalism, karachi, Love, Murder, Pakistan, Silencing Pakistan, World peace

This feature was earlier published in Tehelka – India’s Leading Activist Magazine.

According to Islamic teachings, pen is mightier than the sword. Today we see a vulgar reflection of this teaching in Pakistan. As much as the pen is meant to enlighten, it may also slice your throat. Journalists are relentlessly agonized in Pakistan when they speak too much. While there have been journalists who have been killed in bomb blasts in markets, processions and funerals across the country, caught in the wrong place and wrong time, the last three years, with 17 journalists killed, we have seen an evident rise against target killings of journalists in Pakistan. As mentioned in Reporters Without Borders press freedom index 2010, more journalists are killed here than in any other place in the world, making Pakistan rank 151st out of 178.

The murder of a veteran journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online (Hong Kong) whose tortured-to-death bruised body was found dumped into a canal on 30th May 2011, has jolted. His murderer remains highly debated, as most figures point at the ISI (referring to the email Shahzad had sent to Human Rights Watch), while Saleem’s recent work has great potential to annoy al-Qaeda and it’s accomplices within the army. As much as this mystery has intertwined the recent public dialogue in Pakistan, and perhaps around the world, the discovery of Saleem’s body and the delay in its identification adds to the complications of the case. If figured out, this mystery can also lead us to the brutal killers of Saleem Shahzad.
Saleem Shahzad’s mysterious discovery:
My best sources tell, Saleem Shahzad’s body was found by the staff of the Rasul Barrage, in Mandi Bahauddin district, (some 200 km from Islamabad) who informed the police on 30th May around 10:00 am.  His car was found by the Sarae Alamgir police at the Rasul Road near Father`s Colony along upper Jhelum canal.  The site where his dead body was found is nearly 10 kms away from the site of his car.  Sarae Alamgir, that registered a case of finding an unknown vehicle, is a tehsil of Gujrat district while Rasul Barrage is a part of Mandi Bahauddin district.
My source says that police conducted the autopsy on 30th May at Civil hospital MB. The body was then handed over to Edhi centre where the staff said they bathed the dead body at 11:00 pm and left it till morning for identification. On May 31st, they made announcements in MB city for the identification of the body. After waiting till 1:30 pm they buried it at 2:45 pm, in the Qandawala graveyard of the city.  A news report was also published in Express newspaper, dated 31st May (Gujranwala edition).
On 31st May, after approval from the area magistrate for the exhumation (digging up the grave) which is not a simple practice in Pakistan, the body was finally taken again (this time with the family) to the hospital for autopsy.
The police got the news of an unknown dead body recovered from Rasul Barrage but did not bother to connect the dots (from an unknown car to the unidentified dead body) and registered a case of finding an unknown car. The Mandi Bahauddin police was as negligible. Had the police been efficient on 30th May, Saleem’s body would not have been in Mandi Bahauddin till 31st May 11:30 pm.
On 1st June the slain Saleem Shahzad was flown to his origin city, Karachi for funeral where 100s of mourners, both family and journalists grieved over his undeserved demise. Reporters Without Borders, has reportedly sent a joint letter with the International Federation of Journalists to Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani calling for immediate action over Shahzad’s disappearance.

Tortured but not silenced:
Since the year 2000, over 70 journalists have been killed, a staggering 2,000-plus have been injured, arrested or kidnapped. Umer Cheema an investigative reporter from The News, was one of them. After being attacked to kill by a car in Dec 2004, he was kidnapped on September 4th 2010 by around 12 men wearing commando fatigues, with “No fear” inscribed on their shirts. The thugs stripped him naked, put his face-down on the floor, tied his hands behind his back, lashed his naked body with a long piece of leather and a wooden rod, and addressed him with filthy and foul language, adding “This is the consequence of writing against the government.”

The half hour physical torture left Cheema in excruciating pain. They shaved his head and eyebrows and took his naked picture in different humiliating poses. Six hours later, he was dumped 120 kilometers outside Islamabad with a warning: “If you tell the media about this, you’ll be abducted again—and won’t ever be returned. And your nude pictures will be put on YouTube.”

Umar Cheema, however did not stop. He bravely writes against the government, revealing many faces of corruption within it. This month he has been declared winner (among two others including Julius Assange) of the prestigious British, Martha Gellhorn Award for brave reporting. Paying tributes to Cheema, the award committee said: “Umar Cheema’s work in exposing official corruption is simply astonishing. He has been harassed and tortured, yet he keeps going. This is journalism at its most compelling and courageous.”
What threatens journalism in Pakistan, more than any other place in the world?
Pakistan is a country plagued by natural disasters, endemic political corruption, religious fundamentalism and is claimed by many to be the central headquarters of Islamist terrorism. As many new opportunities as this significance brings for journalists in Pakistan, it also brings along the outnumbered challenges and many a times in the form of threats. As the country is struggling to fight terrorism, militancy with a highly incompetent security system, journalists get botched in-between. Cases of interrogations, indirect and direct threats by the state and agencies and casualty killings have been rising, as Pakistan’s fight with extremism gets tougher and more complicated. Many journalists have also been killed in blasts while on a reporting assignments. Attacks on the media and press clubs in the tribal areas, in Baluchistan and sometimes in the big cities have reportedly risen significantly over the years.
Danger zones for Journalists:
The most sensitive spots however, in this nuclear power house are Baluchistan, FATA, North and South Waziristan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa strip  - a.k.a the War Zone, where journalists are attacked by both state (The Govt/agencies) and anti-state elements (militants/terrorists).
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates over 1,000 people, mostly political opponents of the government and Baluch nationalists, have gone missing over the last 10 years for the crime of speaking against the government. According to Malik Siraj Akbar (visiting journalist with ICIJ, and editor of The Baloch Hal, Balochistan’s first online English newspaper), around 170 Baloch political activists, lawyers, writers have been killed for speaking.
FATA: 10 out 13 press clubs; are operating effectively in FATA. Wana Press Club (South Waziristan Agency) was destroyed by militants in 2007, while the security situation has forced the Bara Press Club (Khyber Agency) to stay closed for three years. The military is using another one as a base. Most journalists adjust to this by moving to ‘comparatively’ safer areas.
Most reporters in N-Waziristan have moved to Bannu and Peshawar, while those in S-Waziristan shifted to Dera Ismail Khan, as reported by Safdar Dawar, president of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ) in Miranshah, North Waziristan. Kohat and Hangu, happen to be safe spots for Orakzai Agency journalists. Since 2005, 10 journalists have been killed in the tribal areas, most recent was Nasrullah Khan Afridi of Khyber Agency. He had previously survived several attacks on his house in Peshawar, was killed on May 10th in the Peshawar Cantonment area by a remote-controlled bomb hidden in his car.
SAFRON (Ministry of States and Frontier Regions) Minister Eng. Shoukatullah Khan, while condemning Nasrullah’s murder, discussed reporters’ safety with PM Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari. The government did not fully pursue the cases and brought no trials and prosecutions. Such impunity has encouraged the growing rate of journalistic killings this year.
How to find hope, if ever possible:
Shahzad’s killing has once again thrust Pakistan into the spotlight, reminding the world that it is among the most dangerous places on earth to be a journalist – and a place where many such murders go unsolved. Interior Minister Rehman Malik recently authorized journalists to carry weapons, but this will not solve any part of the problem unless the state realizes that journalists need to be given full freedom in the line of ‘their duty’. Unless the state quits barging in their authority over journalists to protect their image, we will continue to watch voices succumb to be silences forever.
“The only way to control this, is to create independent investigation inquiries that are able to release their reports within a month or two. No one should be above the law and everyone should be accountable, be it the army, the intelligence, the government or the foreigners.” Says Saad Sarfaraz Shiekh, a freelance journalist.

International journalist forums and organization can also contribute to counter this dilemma by helping to create a media-friendly environment. Introducing a system where the government is held directly responsible for the protection of journalists.

Shahzad’s brutal killing, has brought about a collective outrage on the streets, even by those who used to mince their words. At-least 11 protests were seen at different locations in Pakistan, apart from global condemnations from association and leaderships. The only way to stop this rot, is a collective struggle by journalists demanding freedom of speech.

Filed under: 2011, Journalism, Killing, World peace

This article was earlier published in The Daily Times. 

Another version published at Pak Tea House.

I was just praying secretly that the last day of May passes without another bad news; the month that commenced with a historically significant US-op that ended up divulging Pakistan military’s greatest weaknesses leading to Osama’s final defeat. In-evidently followed by 8 attacks, most on military and others on US, NATO and Saudi reps and disposals. My internal fear grew when Mrs. Saleem Shahzad’s called my father; worried that he is still untraceable after being missing for 2 days. Hours later Shahzad’s brother in law was taken with the Police to identify his body found near his car some 250 kilometers (165 miles) from Islamabad.

Little did I know that my harmless wish for this month to end in peace would counter-attack at a spot that was close to my heart. This wasn’t the first time his life had been under threat, his coherent reporting put his life at stake many times before, including when he was captured by Taliban from Afghanistan border many years ago.

“The hallmark of his work is his uncompromising impartiality and unblinking courage to follow a story to its conclusion, no matter the dangers or sacrifices involved.” –Tony Allison, editor, Asia Times Online. His intrepid reporting gave insight on the realities of the Pak-Afghan disorder. He was one of Pakistan’s best investigative journalists and provided inimitable insights on militancy and its associations. The consequences of these disclosures are evident in the 15 torture marks on his body as the post mortem report quotes: He died due to injury close to his heart.

Quickly the news broke and there was an outburst of speculations. My grievance got deeper and my rage got warmer. It’s distressing when very reasonable journalists, bloggers and citizen journalists call this incident the ‘paralysis of journalism’. Is this what we make of a sacrifice? Is this all we learn from someone who puts his life on stake to tell us the truth? Some tweeters swore they will avenge his blood and find the murderers. Yes we will surely avenge his blood, just as much as we avenged the blood of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti. Yes we will find and punish his murderers just as much as we did in the cases of other journalists killed this year? Or did we inadvertently loose account of Ilyas Nizzar (Darwanth), Zaman Ibrahim (Daily Extra News), Wali Khan Babar (Geo) and Nasrullah Khan Afridi (PTV). No wonder Independent Journalists’ Association considers Pakistan as one of the deadliest countries for journalists. And why not, in this heated land, ‘truth’ increasingly becomes the most intimidating threat to the dismantlers.

We tend to recognize heroes when they have already left us. A humongous crowd of friends and family gathered at the hospital till way past mid night and I’m sure there’d be vigils and peaceful protests outside press clubs, but where were we for the 48 hours he had been taken away. Who protested for him? Which Govt rep ordered interrogation, which security department executed search for him? Sorry the CJP was too busy breaking his ‘bread of bahali’ with his counterparts, so it’s unworthy to question his role.

The media, print and broadcast was mute about on his disappearance and so were we. Are we always waiting for a shock to shake us? How many more will be silenced before we realize that it’s enough. We, as citizens need to clearly understand that the government, the intelligence, the military and the judiciary are answerable to us. Not the other way around. They are here to serve us, not to enslave and massacre us. We have long ignored the disappearance of countless Baloch journalists and activists, many of whom ended up dead. If anyone needs to value truth tellers, freedom fighters who fight with their pen, it is us, the civilians. Apparently the violence and treason by our own care takers hasn’t shaken us enough to take our anger out from these mind churning discussions to the channelized efforts on streets.

We did nothing for the 70+ journalist killed since the year 2000 because, oh! actually we forgot to follow-up. We are professionals at ‘moving on’. If we continue to be so abhorrently ignorant, we may lose the few voices left within us. There are two kinds of journalists; those who write and those who unveil. We need to fight for those who take responsibility and audaciously continue to give their services in the line of fire.

I brush a tear as I think about his 3 very young children who lost a father and his very dedicated strong wife who has been with him through this rather tense journey of revealing truth and transparency. He gave an invaluable service to the nation; it is for us to renovate his efforts and join together in a collective effort to seek and protect truth.

Filed under: Catastrophie, Conspiracy theories, ISI, Journalism, karachi, Killing, Murder, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan, Silencing Pakistan, US, World peace