What is Civil Society? Just a Nice Phrase?

"Civil Society" has become the new touch phrase in Pakistani politics. And it's gotten to the point where people express the same kind of cynicism about it that is usually reserved for words like "Islamist", and "War on Terror", and, well, "Progressive Islam". A friend on one of our alumni mailing lists was getting pretty disgusted by Nawaz Sharif's piling on to the Civil Society bandwagon.

But words have meanings, and undue cynicism can be self-defeating. In fact, we need to fight the battle of perception and how things are framed. That's been quite a discussion in US politics and thought, particularly kicked off by the book by George Lakoff titled Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

And in our own situation in Pakistan, it is important to keep people honest in their language.I think it would go go a long way towards a better society.

And honestly, I have the same attitude towards "terrorism", "moderate", "Islamist", etc. See, for example, my post on the concept of one man's terrrorist being another man's freedom fighter or other posts on being flip with language, such as this one about terrorists that are "Hindu" or "Islamic".

And to further that cause, here's my definition of "Civil Society":

Anyone who's not affiliated with a political party or a government servant (including military).

What's yours? What's your pet peeve in terms of language?

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Pakistan - Emergency - CrisisPK - George Lakoff

Geo Taken Off the Air by the UAE...but how is this surprising?

The word going around about the Dubai/UAE government forcing the Geo Television Network (or parts thereof) off the air is "shocking"...

Miriam Webster defines "shocking" as " extremely startling, distressing, or offensive".

Offensive, yes. But startling? Unless you were--and most of us were--in denial, how is this startling? Distressing, well, if your world view was built on absolute monarchies doing the right thing more often than not, than yes, I can see how it would distress you to see them do othewise.

Startled I am not. My dear mother would have loved for me to live and work in the Gulf and I always said “Pinjra pinjra ho tha hai; chahay sonay ka ho.” [A cage is a cage, even if it is made of gold.] The places are absolute monarchies and they have always had very good relations with Pakistani governments, especially absolute Pakistani governments.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Pakistan - Emergency - CrisisPK - Geo TV

On Greg Palast on Hillary and Musharraf

There's an article going around by Greg Palast whose operative paragraph is:

You’ve seen all those creepy photos of George Bush rubbing up against Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, the two of them grinning and giggling like they’re going to the senior prom. So it’s hard to remember that it was Hillary and Bill who brought Pervez to the dance in the first place.

To me, the point that article makes is that bad foreign policy that most often flies in the face of democratic ideals and the best interests and aspirations of the "natives"--not to mention the longer-term interests of America and its people--is a bi-partisan epidemic in the US, and we shouldn't forget that. Venting all our frustrations at placards of George W. Bush might feel good but is not going to help anybody in the medium-to-long term. What we need to do is to try and help the whole US establishment see the light...

Technorati tags applicable to this post: Pakistan - Emergency - CrisisPK - Hillary - Hillary on Pakistan - Hillary on Musharraf - 2008 Elections - 2008

Thoughts from a tired, but joyous activist

Folks I need to get some sleep. I have installed Picasa and will get more functional on the Wiki and lists and so on tomorrow. Promise.

Shab Bakhair, as the traditional greeting goes; a good night to all--and may the Subha, the morning, be even brighter. I am not kidding when I say that my pride and joy in all the activism and engagement we are seeing today far, far outweighs my pessimism over where our country and our communities (South Asian, Progressive, Muslim, ...) find themselves today. At least for this one moment in time, it is good to be part of something.

I haven't yet gone to a gathering where I can open up and just scream some naa'ray, but that might change this weekend. I leave you with something that's a work in progress and an attempt to update the chant of the late 70s when the people borrowed Bhutto's "Jamhuriyath kay theen nishaan; Talba, Mazdhoor aur Kisan" [Democracy (has its) three symbols; The Students, The Workers and The Peasant] and chanted:

Talba bhee maangain Azadi
Mazdhoor bhee maangay Azaadi
Kissan bhee maangay Azaadi
Is Martial Laa say Azaadi
Is General Zia say Azaadi
Azaadi, Azaadi, Azaadi....

The Students demand Freedom!
The Workers demand Freedom!
The Peasants demand Freedom!
From this Martial Law; Freedom!
From this General Zia; Freedom!
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! ...

Like I said, we need an update, please help me finish this by finding something to rhyme with "Mazdoor" and complete the picture on who's involved:

Talba bhee maangain azaadi
Wukla bhee maangain azaadi

Mazdhoor bhee maangain azaadi
Akhbaar bhee maangain azaadi

Kissan bhee maangain azaadi
Jawaan bhee maangain azaadi
Imran bhee maangay azaadi

Is Martial Laa say Azaadi
Is General Sia say Azaadi
Azaadi, Azaadi, Azaadi....

The Students demand Freedom!
The Lawyers demand Freedom!

The Workers demand Freedom!
Newspapers demand Freedom!

The Peasants demand Freedom!
The Soldiers demand Freedom!
Imran demands Freedom!

From this Martial Law; Freedom!
From this Black General; Freedom!
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! ...

Good night, and good luck.

Technorati tags applicable to this post: CrisisPK - Pakistan - Emergency - Slogans

Fixing my Odeo Channel

Just trying to fix my Odeo Channel (odeo/1fd0971260f4b11c); it wasn't updating right

Technorati tags applicable to this post: iFaqeer - PodCast - Pakistan - Muslim - Progressive