Where Sensitivity Is Needed and Where It Isn't

The gang-rape case in Karachi's upmarket Defence area - where two women were driven off the road by men in another car and one of them was abducted and then raped - has already received plenty of media and blog attention, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

In particular, some parts of the media and the Sindh government adviser Sharmila Farooqui have been quite rightly castigated by many for their criminally cavalier attitude in commenting on the serious crime. It seems there is still a long way to go for some to understand that nothing, and we mean nothing, justifies rape: not the 'character' of a woman, not the clothes she wears, not her past, not her 'activities', not anything she says or does, not anything. A lit bit of sensitivity to the trauma of a rape survivor may be too much to ask from some people but what is shocking is that parts of the media - which had voluntarily stopped naming victims many years ago in a positive move - seem to have unlearnt years of gender sensitization and reverted to their callous previous ways.

The best commentary on the whole issue so far has been provided by Pakistan Media Watch. I would urge you all to read it. There is nothing more that I wish to add.

. . .

In other news, I wanted to share the following recent story from Australia, which reader Umar Anjum shared with us. It raises some rather interesting questions about multiculturalism to say the least, but also about the knee-jerk way religion (or rather, a warped concept of religion) and cultural sensitivity have come to be used to justify the worst excesses.

I am thankful to @MyPplWannaJump for finding me an embeddable video. It is not of the highest quality however. If you wish to see a better quality version of the same clip, you can go here.





Regardless of the undoubted Islamophobic bigotry that sometimes accompanies the paranoia about the veil in the 'West', one must acknowledge the serious issues of security and recognizability that it gives rise to. In fact, this issue of the niqab (note, not the burqa) is hardly an issue limited only to the 'West.' This is increasingly an issue in Pakistan that impinges on security as well, let alone what it indicates about social dynamics over the last 30-odd years. I also know of a very well-respected university professor in Karachi who refuses to teach students wearing a face veil in his class. His contention is that he can neither tell, through visual clues, if the students are understanding what he is saying, nor can he be sure that the veiled students are in fact his students at all. I have to say, I completely sympathize with him.

And If You Thought Shoaib's Warts Were Disgusting...

I could not imagine waking up to more disgusting news on the front pages of the morning papers.

According to the scoop in Dawn today (citing a report leaked to DawnNews), we hear for the first time what various coaches and managers actually said to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) investigating committee about the team and its abysmal failure Down Under last season.

Not only does tour coach and former skipper Intikhab Alam refer to his charges as "mentally retarded people" who "don't know how to wear their clothes and talk in a civilised manner" nor "know that they are representing their country", but:

"And not content with his criticism of how they appeared in public, Alam cited the team’s Sri Lankan physiotherapist to report on the innovative ways adopted by Pakistani players in spaces where they should have been left alone. The leaks of the statements before the inquiry committee suffer on account of bad transcription but what the veteran Pakistani national trainer appeared to be upset that his wards were not ‘toilet-trained’."

Ewwwww. Imagination goes wild. The mind boggles. The stomach churns. The gag reflex kicks in.

One never realized what else Saeed Ajmal and others might have been 'dropping' when all those catches were going down at the T20 World Cup match against England two days ago. No wonder Shahid Afridi was so 'pissed off.' And it does add a whole new meaning to the Pakistan team 'shitting bricks' against Australia. Quite apt, then, that this report should have been 'leaked', wouldn't you say?

Shahid Afridi Having A Ball, A Bit Too Literally

Unbelievable!



What can one even say? Forget the Khalid Hameed incident. In the absence of anything to say to Afridi that hasn't already been said by innumerable commentators ("What was Afridi thinking?"), bloggers ("A disgrace") and the general public ("Mind boggling madness [from] a guy who's played more than 300 games...Shame on you", "Why would you do anything with the ball with 27 cameras watching you?!"), I thought we'd take a different tack and open up the comments section for YOUR suggestions on possible explanations that can be proffered by his close friends and relatives for this truly bizarre behaviour.

Here are some of mine:

1. Afridi was just really hungry but he didn't want the team to lose motivation if he went off the ground for a bite to eat.

2. Shahid just has a thing for leather and, usually, he's able to keep his fetish in check.

3. Afridi's actually a rodent and sometimes that side of him comes to the surface.

4. Shahid is a method player and he was imagining pulling the pin off a hand-grenade to hurl at the Aussies.

5. Everyone does it, yaar, you just don't see it because the goras never show their own people doing it.

6. Actually, he was forced to because he'd trimmed his nails that morning.

7. I probably shouldn't be telling you this but you know how bowlers shine the ball and where all it's rubbed? I mean, he is a Pathan after all...

8. Yaar, everyone knows the Pakistan cricket team sucks these days.

9. Shahid loves the game so much, he could just eat it all up.

Ok, folks, come up with your own.

Yousuf Spells It Out

Pakistan cricket team's tableeghi-in-chief skipper Mohammad Yousuf has finally come out and said it like it is.

Yousuf: Candid tongue

In The News today, he is quoted as saying:

"If you expect something of this side, then maybe that is the wrong expectation."

You have to admire the clarity of thought and the brevity of the statement. Of course, it's taken 14 dropped catches (so far), a number of missed run-outs, two ridiculous run-outs on a flat track at Hobart, two consecutive and shameful test match losses and the imminent prospect of a third, to get him to admit this. But as they say in Urdu, 'daer aaye, durust aaye' (better late than never)...

Oh yeah, and he called Salman Butt "a little lazy runner." You just feel he probably wanted to use some other word than "runner", but for Mohammad Yousuf - who has never been one of Pakistan's more sprightly sprinters between the wickets - to say this, you know it means something.

A Tale of Two Quotes

Here is ALL you need to know about the mental state, the preparedness and the planning tactics of Pakistan and Australia on the eve of the third test match at Hobart:

Two juxtaposed quotes from Osman Samiuddin's preview on cricinfo:

Quotes

"What we have to do down here is not let them get back into the game like we let them start in Sydney. There's still a lot of mystery around about them."

Ricky Ponting on the riddle that is Pakistan

 

"There is no doubt that Sarfraz will play."

Intikhab Alam, Pakistan's coach, puts an end to all speculation regarding Pakistan's wicketkeeper in Hobart

Why No Sports Team Wants to Visit Pakistan, Really

First of all, can I just vent my total and utter disbelief and agony at the depths that the Pakistani cricket team has sunk to? I mean, here we were, on the brink of winning our first test in Australia in 15 years (!) and we end up losing??! One always had an uneasy feeling about Pakistan's ability to chase anything over 150 - despite there being a full two days of play left - but even so, I calmed myself by thinking 'Pakistan just cannot be as predictable as to collapse once again.' Obviously, their unpredictability lay only in proving me wrong about their predictability. Aaaaaaargh!!! Bloody bunch of wankers!

Top three wankers-in-chief:

1. Kamran Akmal: Dropping not one, not two, not three but four fucking catches and missing one run out. And this is the man with the gloves! Oh yeah, and scoring a grand total of 25 runs in two innings and getting out to ego shots when your side needed you to stay.

2. Misbah-ul-Haq: A grand total of 11 runs in the entire match. If he's the "sheet anchor" in the middle, no wonder the ship is adrift. Shite anchor, more like. Remind me why he's in the side again?

3. Mohammad Yousuf: For his bizarre captaincy that allowed Pakistan to snap defeat from the jaws of victory and for his general persona that makes it seem he'd much rather be preaching. Five Rupees had a post on this recently, commenting on how he spends more time trying to convert other cricketers to Islam than on actual strategizing. Perhaps, today he was too busy thinking about how to get Ricky Ponting to attend one of his tableegh sessions. Idiot.

Which of course segues nicely into the reason that no sports teams, other than Bangladesh, want to visit Pakistan. This is from Dawn:

9 African boxers embrace Islam

Wednesday, 06 Jan, 2010

        

KARACHI, Jan 5: Nine African boxers embraced Islam on the sidelines of an international boxing tournament on Tuesday, saying they were impressed by the humanity and righteous ways of the religion.

 

The boxers flew into Karachi to compete in the contest named after assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and drawing participants from 20 countries around the world.

 

It was a landmark tournament for Pakistan, coming 10 months after an attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore killed eight people, all but destroying the country’s hopes of hosting top-level international sport.

 

Six boxers from Central African Republic (CAR) --- Yagor Gbodo, Selebange Welcome, Niamogui Songnekani, NGoko Bongui, Ndarash and Bongola --- all chose to convert on the sidelines of the contest, which runs until Friday.

 

They were joined by Mendoua Blase, Ketchemi Joseph Justin and Tchwem Justin from Cameroon who also converted from Christianity to Islam. CAR coach Mohammad Kalambaye said the boxers were impressed by the teachings of Islam and Pakistan’s hospitality.—AFP

Within and without, it seems we're more intent on proselytizing than playing sports. And you wonder why our "conversion rates" are touching the sky.