On coercive control

Rafia Zakaria

November 27, 2024 

DAWN

IT is not news anymore that women live in a moment where male anger and violence is a constant threat. Everywhere in the world, women are being subjected to violence against their bodies, their minds, their families, and their livelihoods. According to the United Nations, which is currently commemorating 16 days of activism against gender violence, a woman or girl is intentionally killed every 10 minutes by a partner or family member. It is not surprising then that 60 per cent of femicides are committed by partners and relatives.

Further research shows that intimate partner violence causes enduring consequences, such as acute and chronic conditions, physical disabilities, persistent health complications, psychological conditions, and even mortality. It was reported some years ago, that this sort of violence leads to approximately two million injuries and 1,200 deaths in the US alone.

Death and beatings are the most egregious forms of violence but some emphasis must also be put on all other forms of violence that are daily and hourly lobbed at women from all sides. In Pakistan, death or physical violence is often held up as ‘real’ violence against women while other forms of violence are somehow considered permissible or are disregarded. Because physical violence is itself rampant in the country, women who face lesser forms of it are told to consider themselves lucky. Women who face verbal, financial and psychological abuse are told that they are not abused at all.

The truth is that many non-physical forms of violence can cause just as much and just as enduring harm as physical forms of violence. Often, these forms of violence can be even more insidious because they are not very visible to others and can therefore continue unchecked for very long periods of time. Emotional and psychological abuse refers to the emotional distress caused to an individual through verbal aggression, threatening behaviour, intimidation, or coercive tactics that abusers use to exert control, instil fear, and undermine the self-worth of their victims.


Women who face verbal, financial and psychological abuse are told that they are not abused at all.

Unfortunately, there is no standard definition of psychological abuse but it can be understood as intended to belittle and humiliate the victim and to take away their dignity so that they do not protest against continuing abuse. Arguably, in almost all cases, this form of abuse is a precursor to other forms of domestic violence.

One example of this sort of abuse manifests itself in damaging objects belonging to the victim or infusing toxicity into the environment around the victim as a way of frightening and mentally torturing her.

Take, for instance, an angry husband who proceeds to throw out all of his wife’s clothes from an apartment balcony onto the street below. While this is not causing any immediate physical harm to the woman, it is a way of belittling and harming her psychologically and in front of the neighbourhood.

Another case may be one of isolation where the abuser gets so angry every time the victim leaves home to visit her own relatives that she stops making such visits altogether. This isolates the victim so that the abuser can control her sense of reality, thus increasing the extent of control he exercises over her.

Coercive control, then, is a way of controlling the environment, resources and sense of physical, psychological and emotional security of a victim in a way that she can be manipulated into doing just what the abuser wants. Some emotional and psychological abuse is obvious such as name-calling, hurling abuses, isolating the victim, jealousy, monitoring locations, stalking, controlling the victim’s appearance, public humiliation, accusations of unfaithfulness, blaming the victim for the abuser’s actions, gaslighting, or damaging belongings. All these create an environment of coercive control where otherwise benign actions are weaponised to create a web that traps the victim in the abuser’s realm of control.

Although everyone knows that physical beatings are abuse and that abusers have become adept at hiding evidence of them, there needs to be more discussion of these other forms of abuse in Pakistani society. While women are the primary focus of marital or intimate partner abuse, all women in a household are vulnerable and face violence at home. These include older women particularly if they are infirm, disabled or are ill. And as the gruesome case of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, murdered by her Pakistani father in the UK reveals, young female children are just as vulnerable to abuse at home.

Even if women — daughters, wives, mothers, and sisters — do not end up dead they bear the scars of the abuse that haunts their lives. Pakistani women are tough — they have to be in such a patriarchal society — but increasingly, their emotional lives are buried under the weight of scar tissue left by near-constant onslaught of abuse at the hands of the men in their lives.

This means that they are unable to freely enjoy the simple joys that make life worth living — for instance, being able to celebrate their own and their children’s successes, without worrying about repercussions, or being able to call a friend and visit a parent without having to worry about the explanations that would have to be handed to a jealous and abusive spouse and in-laws.

Life in Pakistan is already full of stresses, but the addition of social sanction and approval for this sort of treatment of women and a gross ignorance of all these forms of coercive control that are flourishing unchecked is a ghastly reality. The women who die are killed in one fell swoop and robbed of all the potential within life; the women who are left alive die a slower, grittier death by a thousand cuts, their spirit gone before their body perishes.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
rafia.zakaria@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2024

The women factor in Pakistani politics

While the "politicisation" of Bushra and Aleema flies in the face of Imran’s own opinions about ‘hereditary politics’, it speaks volumes about what compels families of politicians to step up.

Amir Wasim 

Published November 26, 2024

DAWN

THE old adage “what goes around, comes around” has never been more fitting than in the case of PTI founder Imran Khan, who has found himself trapped by the irony of his own words, delivered on a number of occasions as part of the political rhetoric he has used against his opponents.

The recent entry of his wife Bushra Bibi and sister Aleema Khan into the political fray has left many wondering; is it a betrayal of values, or a necessary move in the ever-changing world of politics?

For years, Mr Khan critici­sed traditional politicians for promoting hereditary politics and launching their own family members, particularly wo­­men, into the political arena, specifically targeting the Sharifs for bringing Kulsoom and Maryam Nawaz into politics.

PTI members and workers, in the past, have also run smear campaigns on social media targeting the two Sharif family women over the political roles they had adopted.


While the ‘politicisation’ of Bushra and Aleema flies in the face of Imran’s own opinions about ‘hereditary politics’, it speaks volumes about what compels families of politicians to step up

Both Bushra Bibi and Aleema Khan — who had previously been playing the role of messengers between the incarcerated party leader and the PTI leadership — have now become more involved in the party’s leadership.

The former, who was released from prison following her bail in the Toshakhana case last month, has reportedly presided over a number of meetings in the PTI stronghold of KP. She also surprised many by issuing a political statement on Thursday that caused a storm of “international proportions”.

Many believe that Mr Khan has sought the help of his wife and sister to further his political agenda due to his frustration with the current party leadership.

There is no doubt that Bushra Bibi and Aleema Khan, with little to no political experience or aspirations, were compelled to take on the political mantle due to the prevailing circumstances, given that most of the PTI’s top tier leadership is either in prison, or in hiding out of fear of arrest.

A page from history

This is not a new trend or phenomenon in Pakistani politics. Indeed, the country has seen women family members of prominent politicians playing a similar role in the past, primarily out of necessity.

However, a couple of names on this list stand head and shoulders above the rest, those of Fatima Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto.

The Quaid-i-Azam’s sister, who remained by his side throughout the struggle for independence and thereafter, was a seasoned campaigner. Yet, she formally waded into the political arena some 17 years after the death of her brother. At the time, her hand was forced by Ayub Khan, the country’s first military ruler, and she had to contest a lop-sided election, facing barbs and a malicious campaign that went as far as to dub her a ‘traitor’.

The lady still referred to as Madr-i-Millat (mother of the nation) in contemporary history books was dubbed by some to be an ‘agent of Kabul’ in the 1960s. It sounds hard to believe, but this was part of a high-profile newspaper advertisement campaign, sponsored by the state.

Then, following the imposition of martial law and the rounding up of the PPP leadership after the deposing of then-PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, it was the Iranian-born Begum Nusrat Bhutto and her daughter, Benazir, who stepped in to fill the political void.

While her mother jumped into the fray out of necessity, Benazir was already being groomed for leadership by her father as she regularly accompanied him in political meetings and foreign tours.

Following his demise, his spouse and daughter had to tread a thorny road, lined with persecution and exile, before the party could mark a return to power in the first democratic elections held in the post-Zia era.

This wasn’t the end of her struggle, though, and history repeated itself in the 1990s. Dogged by allegations of corruption, the dismissal of the PPP government and imprisonment of her husband, she was forced into exile once again. Although she managed to return to the country in 2007, she wound up paying the ultimate price for championing democracy when she was assassinated after a rally in Liaquat Bagh.

Forced into the limelight

Begum Nasim Wali Khan’s is one of the first names that comes to mind when we look back at women who were forced into the political limelight by circumstance.

The wife of Pashtun nationalist leader Khan Abdul Wali Khan, she waded into politics after the arrest of her husband and the banning of his National Awami Party (NAP) by the then-PPP government in 1975. She led the movement to secure her husband’s release and remained active in politics for many years after his death.

She also made a history by becoming the first woman elected from then NWFP on a general seat in the 1977 elections and later played a crucial role in the struggle against the military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq from the platform of MRD.

Then, it was the turn of Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, to fight for her husband while he was imprisoned by military dictator Pervez Musharraf. Who can forget those iconic photos of her car being towed by the authorities from Lahore’s Canal Road, with her still defiantly seated inside.

More contemporary examples include the two sisters of President Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur and Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, who have been active in politics for decades.

While Dr Pechuho has kept a low profile in internal party matters, preferring to concentrate on service delivery as a member of the provincial cabinet, Ms Talpur has risen to occupy a central position in party circles. Known as ‘addi’ (the Sindhi word for ‘sister’), she also entered politics when her brother was facing a long incarceration under the Nawaz Sharif regime in 1990s. But while most of these women had to take on a political role under the yoke of military regimes, Bushra Bibi and Aleema Khan have been pushed into a similar situation under ‘civilian rule’.

Bushra’s role

PTI’s opponents say that Imran Khan’s past criticism of traditional politicians for promoting hereditary politics now seems hypocritical, when the women from his own family have jumped into the political arena.

On the other hand, PTI supporters claim that the two women were compelled to enter politics due to the government’s policy of persecuting its opponents and cracking down on the PTI leadership and workers.

The furore over Bushra Bibi’s recent statement also mirrors the political situation. Although she has been in the news since their marriage, due to her reported influence on Mr Khan’s political decisions, Bushra mostly remained behind the scenes while the PTI was in power.

Following her husband’s incarceration, she was also dragged to court in various cases and only recently secured her freedom. Her latest statement, a rare appearance via video message that sparked controversy, was also necessitated by the confusing messages coming out of the party leadership regarding the protest planned for Sunday.

While it remains to be seen how Imran Khan’s supporters will react to these two women’s role in the party’s decision-making circles, there are already reports of resentment within some sections of the party over the new roles assumed by Imran’s spouse and sister. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and Bushra and Aleema are unlikely to be the last women to wade into politics to save the men of their family.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2024

Hope Lies in a Good Crisis

We need a huge climate crisis to shake us out of our complacency, argues Julian Saunders.

Julian Saunders

Published 08 Nov, 2024 

AURORA/DAWN

“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a proverb that stands the test of time. We saw it in evidence during the pandemic. In normal times, it can take a decade to develop a vaccine, yet it took less than a year to produce one. Governments sacrificed other medical research priorities to do so.

War, that other great and constant crisis in human affairs, acts as an accelerator of innovation. Radar, jet engines, the internet, canned food, atomic fusion, and most recently, autonomous drones are just a few of the innovations war has produced.

The big predictor of whether a society really commits to change is therefore the threat of an existential crisis.

Pandemics and wars have direct and visible impacts on populations. Governments have to act urgently. They have no choice, or they are likely to be chased from office on a tidal wave of public anger. The general public faced with death and/or displacement is also prepared to make sacrifices.

And here’s the rub. For all the talk of the climate crisis, it is unclear whether most populations and governments see it as an existential threat right here, right now. We are not prepared to ban the burning of fossil fuels. The big emitters of greenhouse gases – China, the US and other industrialised societies – are full of good intentions but are not prepared to sell a more rapid switch to green energy to their populations. Solar panels are booming and becoming cheaper, but coal-fired power stations are also being built, especially in China. Politicians in the US dare not alienate ‘Big Oil’.

Not surprisingly, behavioural change at an individual level is lagging. The signalling from the government is not yet for urgent change. People intuit that their individual actions will not stop the planet from frying unless the likes of China and the US cooperate to drastically reduce the burning of fossil fuels. Many people do exercise responsibility by, for example, foregoing plane travel and eating meat, yet others are merrily taking those EasyJet flights, which remain cheap and easy to book. Things are serious, but do I have to give up doing the things that give me pleasure? Not yet.

My apologies to Aurora readers for this dispiriting introduction. Where is the hope, you might ask? Firstly (and paradoxically), it lies in crisis. None of us can foresee the next decade. A huge and sudden climate crisis event (flooding, desertification, fire) will shake us out of our complacency and bring distant terrors near. It will spur action and innovation in a way no amount of sober analysis cannot achieve. Secondly, it lies in the technology dynamic.

Inventions tend to be expensive at first. Then technology – driven by demand and the opportunity for large markets – becomes both cheaper and easier to use. Cheapness and ease are reliable predictors of mass adoption and behavioural change. This dynamic is in play with solar panels. My neighbour is installing them; I will probably copy her. As I looked out of the window of a train this week, I saw a whole field given over to solar panels. This is clearly good business for farmers in the UK. Thirdly, it lies in government commitment to investment and not just relying on market forces. Vaccines and solar panels are both examples of massive government intervention to underwrite production. In 2009, China began offering a nationwide subsidy for solar energy sold to the electric grid, which created a growing domestic market for solar photovoltaic technologies. In July 2024, China announced a subsidy package of over 2.7 billion yuan ($220 million) for solar power.

To understand which ones of the green technologies will take off in the next 20 years, a good question is: what are the technologies being supported by governments and especially by the Chinese Communist Party? The Kiel Institute reports that China heavily subsidises green tech sectors such as electric mobility, solar and wind power. China’s overall subsidies range between three and nine times that of other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Because China is a manufacturing powerhouse, prices collapse quickly. Chinese-produced electric cars are about half the price of US and European brands.

Which brings us to a geopolitical crunch. Do you import these inexpensive Chinese products and transition more quickly to a green economy, or do you slap on big import tariffs to protect domestic businesses? The Trumpian USA has already made up its mind about this. Other countries, unencumbered by the political need to protect their domestic industries, can take advantage, especially sunny and windy places. In the UK, for example, 30% of energy production was from wind in 2023, up from 22% in 2021. That is a rapid transformation. Africa will surely be the solar-powered continent in the next decade. Innovation is bubbling away in many domains. A recent visit to the Design Museum in London highlights two that could become much more important in the next decade, driven by crisis and the need for concerted government-led action:

1 System Built Housing

The volumes of people seeking refuge could increase dramatically due to climate change. Natural disasters destroy homes. As resources become more constrained, we will see more wars. We will need homes (not just tents) that can be quickly erected: predesigned, pre-manufactured and assembled on site at a low cost. We will see the reinvention of ‘the prefab’ that was widely used in the wake of the Second World War in the UK.

2 Data Centres and Energy Recycling

Here is a shocking fact. Data centres are responsible for nearly one percent of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the world – close to the entire aviation industry. They will surely grow and be put under the spotlight by activists. Every time you post a picture on Facebook, you contribute to it. AI will cause it to grow even faster. Yet, data centres produce heat, which, if managed well, can be recycled and reused. Tallaght is the site of Ireland’s first district heating network sourced from the waste heat of an Amazon web services data centre. It is the kind of investment big tech companies are well advised to take to preempt being penalised through fines and taxation.

Crisis, then, can be painful and even deadly. But it seems to me to be the necessary stimulant we will need for more rapid transformation. We have to hope it does not come too late.

Julian Saunders is a strategist, writer and teacher.
julians@joinedupcomy.com

Future socialisms

Dr Niaz Murtaza

 November 26, 2024

DAWN

“SOCIALISM is dead; Long Live Socialism,” wrote fellow Berkeley scholar Roger Burbach in 1997, bravely predicting socialism’s rise in new forms even as older ones were falling. As capitalism’s damaging toll on humans expands hugely, the search for alternatives to the beast assumes urgency. Many think this means ending wage labour, profits and private capital, which they wrongly see as capitalism’s core.

But sociologist Karl Polyani argued that these had existed even before capitalism for long. Capitalism rose only in the 17th century when capital’s interests became society’s dominant logic to replace other human concerns, with a false promise that its sway ensures common welfare.

Capitalism expands its profits by penetrating all human spheres and coaxing humans to satisfy all their needs via markets that they are satisfying via family, community, state or nature for free, arguing that market solutions better cater to all human needs. But the ills of this idea, spread cunningly by owners of big capital, are visible now in high inequity, environmental loss, resource wars and irrelevance of millions of workers as AI spreads fast, as capital’s dehumanising interests hold sway even over human realms that transcend commercial logics. Thus, ending capital’s corrupting sway over all other human concerns is imperative.

Socialism is usually seen as a system with state-owned production assets. But Polyani’s insights about capitalism’s core inspire a new vision of socialism as a system with common welfare as its dominant logic/ aim (rather than an uncertain derived one as in capitalism) that allows all ownership forms that don’t nix common welfare. This vision can spawn many forms of socialism, as the plural in the title suggests. The Nordic model is a form built on private capital, with common welfare ensured via provision of public social services, big state investment in education, health, and other human capital services and strong labour-force protection via unions and safety nets.


Ending capital’s corrupting sway is imperative.

But poor states lack the globally competitive economies to generate enough taxes to fund a generous welfare state. They need a conjoint twin: a developmental-cum-welfare state where the first twin spawns an inclusive economy that gives income options to all able beings and the welfare twin that gives safety nets to the few labour-deficit beings. But new forms must avoid the ills of failed forms: over-centralised political and economic power that disempowers and disincentivises masses, kills energies and creativity and causes political autocracy and economic unproductivity.

Oddly, huge oligopolies are producing some such results even in capitalism that aged oligarchs did in former USSR. Donald Trump wants to keep afloat US oligarchies that can’t compete with efficient Chinese units, just as Soviet oligarchs tried against efficient US ones 50 years ago.

Politically, new forms must embrace multiparty democracy over a one-party system and disperse power horizontally and vertically. Empowered local bodies must empower community organisations to help gain market power, protection, assets, skills and social services. The economic system must be similarly devolved and encourage a wide range of ownership forms, ie, employee-owned, non-profit, producer cooperatives, dispersed ownership by different state levels and bodies and private companies, with a bias for micro, small and medium units.

The state must review the cause of poverty among small producers and labourers in rural and urban areas in different regions. Such bottom-up analysis will reveal not only the lack of economic and social investment by the state for such groups as key factors but also their exploitation and marginalisation by markets and local elites. This will give a wide, structural agenda that covers legislation, policies, strategies, projects, services and institutional reform at federal, provincial and local levels.

This major investment in poor regions will drive national progress as reduced poverty ignites win-win growth that benefits society. Our internal market is small, despite our large population, given low incomes. Increasing incomes will expand the national market size and profits for producers. This in turn will expand incomes for the poor and hence national market size and ignite a virtuous progress cycle. Local initiatives will tap local savings digitally to plough them into local investments. Smart regulation will replace deregulation and broader state units restructuring will replace only privatisation.

Such devolved and empowering socialisms will use the political and economic mobilisation of masses as the key force driving both a state and economy of the people, by the people and for the people.

The writer is a political economist with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
murtazaniaz@yahoo.com
X: @NiazMurtaza2

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2024

Pakistan web controls quash dissent and potential


By AFP
November 27, 2024


Copyright AFP Aamir QURESHI

Shrouq TARIQ, Juliette MANSOUR

Besieged by political turmoil, Pakistan’s government is turning to draconian internet censorship which threatens to cut the country off from a promising future, experts and citizens say.

Social media site X has been down since February, internet outages are becoming more common and severe, and web tools used to evade state censorship will soon be banned for personal use.

Analysts say the measures are ramping up as Islamabad is being challenged by supporters of jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan, who commands the loyalty of legions of young and web-savvy Pakistanis.

Khan was barred from standing in February polls which his followers say were rigged, and they have defied a crackdown both online and offline to stage unruly protests calling for his release.

During clashes in the capital this week between security forces and over 10,000 Khan supporters, authorities blocked mobile data in much of the city and also severed home internet in some areas, citing security fears.

“Censorship and surveillance we are seeing right now in Pakistan is unprecedented and very sophisticated,” said Pakistani digital rights activist Usama Khilji.

“It’s creating frustration in society,” he told AFP

– ‘Wasting time’ –

Mobile internet outages have become common fixtures during protests by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party since he was ousted in 2022, but a home internet cut off is far more unusual.

The Interior Ministry said the measure was taken in the capital “only in areas with security concerns”.

Shahzad Arshad, head of the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, told AFP the measure was taken because “residents had opened their wifi” to demonstrators on previous marches.

But without a connection, Muhammad Fahim Khan, an assistant professor, said he suffered a double lockdown — unable either to reach his university in person or to teach remotely.

“Ongoing projects come to a halt due to internet outages,” the 37-year-old said. “Productivity and the quality of life have been quite ruined.”

Last year Pakistan was on the brink of default, saved only by bailouts from abroad, and the new government has touted tech as a potential economic lifeline for its recovery.

But student and blogger Khadija Rizvi said internet cuts “undeniably worse than ever before” have left her disillusioned about her prospects.

“The persistent internet outages have rendered it impossible to make any meaningful progress,” the 25-year-old said. “This internet shutdown feels like a complete waste of valuable time and potential.”

Thousands of food delivery drivers who scrape a living using online apps were also left without work during the capital protests, which subsided early on Wednesday.

– ‘Assistance in sin’ –

Islamabad is a city of just one million, but the other 240 million people in Pakistan have also suffered a grinding internet slowdown since August.

Digital analysts say the government has been testing a “firewall” that monitors some platforms and gives the power to block content, like photos or videos of rallies shared on WhatsApp.

Social media site X went dark after allegations of vote tampering circulated following elections, but government officials including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif continue to post there.

Many Pakistanis used Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) — tools masking the location where they are logging on — in order to circumvent restrictions.

VPNs are also vital for many online freelancers signing in to client networks abroad to earn a living virtually in professions like tech support or software development.

Nearly 2.4 million people work this way, according to the Pakistan Freelancers Association.

But this month the government’s Council of Islamic Ideology, which checks whether laws comply with religious teachings, declared them non-halal.

The chief cleric said they could be used as an “assistance in sin” to access sites with pornography or blasphemous content, both banned in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has said starting from December 1 all VPNs must be registered or blocked, and that only commercial use will be allowed.

Freelancers have been cleared to apply, but they must have the backing of an employer and provide their personal data to the state, increasing the potential for surveillance according to experts.

“Pakistan is working to strengthen its digital economy while simultaneously taking draconian steps to police online content,” said Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at The Wilson Center.

“This is a textbook case of shooting yourself in the foot. Both feet in fact.”

Policing the internet

DAWN
Editorial 

November 27, 2024 

IT is chilling to witness how Pakistan — a nation that embraced the freedoms of modern democracy, and the tech that came with it — has descended into echoing the darkest chapters of authoritarian history. The escalating digital clampdown, including the planned blocking of non-commercial VPNs by Nov 30 and the deployment of a China-inspired ‘national firewall’, signals this disturbing descent. Of late, WhatsApp outages preventing messages, images, and videos from being sent have added to the chaos, affecting millions of users. X, Instagram and TikTok were affected long before. The government claims these measures will combat illegal content, obscenity, and ‘digital terrorism’, but its underlying motivations appear far more politically charged. The timing of these moves usually coincides with heightened political tensions, particularly protests by supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan. The ‘firewall’ — or the Web Management System — reportedly equipped with intrusive Deep Packet Inspection technology, enables granular monitoring of internet activity and selective blocking of content. While officials frame this as a tool to safeguard national security, critics argue it is aimed at silencing dissent and controlling narratives. In a political climate where mainstream media is far from free, social media has become a critical outlet for public expression.

The ramifications are profound. Pakistan’s thriving IT sector, growing at 30pc annually, is under severe threat. Industry leaders warn that the VPN ban risks alienating Fortune 500 clients, causing massive financial and reputational losses, and forcing companies to relocate. Freelancers and small business owners, who rely on uninterrupted connectivity for global contracts, are already struggling due to frequent internet throttling. This is no way to achieve the ambitious target of raising IT exports to $25bn. Moreover, the deployment of the firewall, lacking transparency and legal safeguards, undermines user privacy and has already slowed internet speeds due to its intrusive ‘in-line’ monitoring. These measures mimic the worst elements of dictatorships, where controlling dissent takes precedence over economic and civil liberties. Instead of emulating restrictive models, the government must focus on addressing public grievances and restoring democratic freedoms. Stakeholder engagement, transparent regulations, and targeted approaches to national security concerns are essential. Suppressing dissent through draconian measures will only deepen public distrust, isolate Pakistan in the global digital economy, and fuel further unrest. Freedom and progress, not fear and control, must guide our digital future.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2024

THE MOST MORAL ARMY IN THE WORLD

Winter rains pile misery on war-torn Gaza’s displaced


By AFP
November 26, 2024

With many residents of Gaza displaced by the war, often living in cramped tent camps, the coming winter is a cause for concern - Copyright AFP/File Isabella BONOTTO

At a crowded camp in Gaza for those displaced by the war between Israel and Hamas, Ayman Siam laid concrete blocks around his tent to keep his family dry as rain threatened more misery.

“I’m trying to protect my tent from the rainwater because we are expecting heavy rain. Three days ago when it rained, we were drenched,” Siam said, seeking to shield his children and grandchildren from more wet weather.

Siam is among thousands sheltering at Gaza City’s Yarmuk sports stadium in the north after being uprooted by the Israel-Hamas war.

He lives in one of many flimsy tents set up at the stadium, where the pitch has become a muddy field dotted with puddles left by rainfall that washed away belongings and shelters.

People in the stadium dug small trenches around their tents, covered them with plastic sheets, and did whatever they could to stop the water from entering their makeshift homes.

Others used spades to direct the water into drains, as grey skies threatened more rain.



– ‘Catastrophic’ –



The majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

With many displaced living in tent camps, the coming winter is raising serious concerns.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, told AFP that “tens of thousands of displaced people, especially in the central and south of Gaza Strip, are suffering from flooded tents due to the rains”, and called on the international community to provide tents and aid.

International aid organisations have sounded the alarm about the deteriorating situation as winter approaches.

“It’s going to be catastrophic,” warned Louise Wateridge, an emergency officer for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees currently in Gaza.

“People don’t have anything that they need,” she said from Gaza City. “They haven’t had basic, basic, basic things for 13 months, not food, not water, not shelter,” she added.

“It’s going to be miserable, it’s going to be very desperate.”

The rainy period in Gaza lasts between late October and April, with January being the wettest month, averaging 30 to 40 millimetres of rain.

Winter temperatures can drop as low as six degrees Celsius (42 Fahrenheit).

Recent rain has flooded hundreds of tents near the coast in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, as well as in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, according to Gaza’s civil defence.



– ‘Nothing left’ –



Auni al-Sabea, living in a tent in Deir el-Balah, was among those bearing the brunt of the weather without proper accommodation.

“The rain and seawater flooded all the tents. We are helpless. The water took everything from the tent, including the mattresses, blankets and a water jug. We were only able to get a mattress and blankets for the children,” said the displaced man.

“Now, we are in the street and we have nothing left,” said the 40-year-old from Al-Shati Camp.

At the stadium, Umm Ahmed Saliha showed the water that pooled under her tent during morning prayers. “All of this is from this morning’s rain and winter hasn’t even started properly.”

Hamas’s attack on October 7 last year resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 44,235 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

bur-az-phy-raz/dcp/dv

Landmine victims gather to protest US decision to supply Ukraine


By AFP
November 26, 2024

Activists and landmine survivors hold placards decrying the US decision to supply anti-personnel landmines to Ukrainian forces - Copyright AFP TANG CHHIN Sothy

Landmine victims from across the world gathered at a conference in Cambodia on Tuesday to protest the United States’ decision to give landmines to Ukraine, with Kyiv’s delegation expected to report at the meet.

More than 100 protesters lined the walkway taken by delegates to the conference venue in Siem Reap where countries are reviewing progress on the the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.

“Look what antipersonnel landmines will do to your people,” read one placard held by two landmine victims.

Alex Munyambabazi, who lost a leg to a landmine in northern Uganda in 2005, said he “condemned” the decision by the US to supply antipersonnel mines to Kyiv as it battles Russian forces.

“We are tired. We don’t want to see any more victims like me, we don’t want to see any more suffering,” he told AFP.

“Every landmine planted is a child, a civilian, a woman, who is just waiting for their legs to be blown off, for his life to be taken.

“I am here to say we don’t want any more victims. No excuses, no exceptions.”

Washington’s announcement last week that it would send anti-personnel landmines to Kyiv was immediately criticised by human rights campaigners.

Ukraine is a signature to the treaty. The United States and Russia are not.

Ukraine using the US mines would be in “blatant disregard for their obligations under the mine ban treaty,” said Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

“These weapons have no place in today’s warfare,” she told AFP.

“[Ukraine’s] people have suffered long enough from the horrors of these weapons.”

A Ukrainian delegation was present at the conference on Tuesday, and it was expected to present its report on progress in clearing mines on its territory.

Ukraine says cannot meet landmine destruction pledge due to Russia invasion


By AFP
November 26, 2024


Ukraine will not fulfil a commitment to destroy a stockpile of around 6 million landmines left over from the Soviet Union because of Russia’s invasion, a defence official said on Tuesday.

The commitment made in connection with the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention’s Oslo Action Plan is “currently not possible” due to Russia’s invasion, Yevhenii Kivshyk of Ukraine’s defence ministry told a landmine conference in Cambodia.

Arsenals and other sites where anti-personnel mines are stored “have been under constant air and missile strikes by the armed forces of the Russian Federation”, he said.

“In addition, some of them are in the territories that are currently under occupation by the Russian armed forces,” Kivshyk said.

Therefore there was “no possibility whatsoever to conduct audit and verification of the anti-personnel mine stocks”.

Ukraine is a signatory of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention and has committed to destroying its stockpile of landmines.

It has previously missed deadlines to destroy its stockpile.

Last week Washington announced that it would send anti-personnel landmines to Kyiv to help its forces battle Russian troops, a decision immediately criticised by human rights campaigners.

The United States and Russia are not signatories to the anti-landmine convention.

Kivshyk made no mention of the US offer to Ukraine during his speech to the conference in Cambodia’s Siem Reap.



– ‘Look what mines do’ –



Landmine victims from across the world gathered at the meeting to protest the US decision.

More than 100 demonstrators lined the walkway taken by delegates to the conference venue where countries are reviewing progress on the anti-personnel mine ban treaty.

“Look what antipersonnel landmines will do to your people,” read one placard held by two landmine victims.

Alex Munyambabazi, who lost a leg to a landmine in northern Uganda in 2005, said he “condemned” the decision by the United States to supply anti-personnel mines to Kyiv.

“We are tired. We don’t want to see any more victims like me, we don’t want to see any more suffering,” he told AFP.

“Every landmine planted is a child, a civilian, a woman, who is just waiting for their legs to be blown off, for his life to be taken.

“I am here to say we don’t want any more victims. No excuses, no exceptions.”

Ukraine using the US mines would be in “blatant disregard for their obligations under the mine ban treaty”, said Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

“These weapons have no place in today’s warfare,” she told AFP.

Ukrainians “have suffered long enough from the horrors of these weapons”.

Fewest new HIV cases since late 1980s: UNAIDS report


By AFP
November 26, 2024

Around 1.3 million people acquired the disease in 2023, according to the new report

 - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File CHIP SOMODEVILLA

Daniel Lawler and Julien Dury

Fewer people contracted HIV last year than at any point since the rise of the disease in the late 1980s, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that this decline was still far too slow.

Around 1.3 million people contracted the disease in 2023, according to the new report from the UNAIDS agency.

That is still more than three times higher than needed to reach the UN’s goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Around 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses last year, the lowest level since a peak of 2.1 million in 2004, the report said ahead of World AIDS Day on Sunday.

Much of the progress was attributed to antiretroviral treatments that can reduce the amount of the virus in the blood of patients.

Out of the nearly 40 million people living with HIV around the world, some 9.3 million are not receiving treatment, the report warned.

And despite the global progress, 28 countries recorded an increase in HIV infections last year.

Efforts to make preventative treatment called Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) available in these countries has seen “very slow progress”, the report pointed out.

“Only 15 percent of people who need PrEP were receiving it in 2023,” the report said.

UNAIDS deputy director Christine Stegling said that “progress has been driven by biomedical advances, advances in the protection of human rights and by community activism”.

“But big gaps in the protection of human rights remain, and these gaps are keeping the world from getting on the path that ends AIDS,” she told an online press conference.

She warned that if current trends continue, “we will end up with a much, much higher number of people living with HIV, long after 2030”.

UNAIDS emphasised how laws and practices that “discriminate against or stigmatise” people with HIV were hindering the fight against the disease.

It pointed to how Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world, led to sharp drop in PrEP access since coming into force last year.

Axel Bautista, a gay rights activist from Mexico City, pointed out that same-sex relations are banned in 63 countries.

“Criminalisation exacerbates fear, persecution, hate, violence and discrimination and has a negative impact on public health,” he told the press conference.

– ‘Game-changer’ new drug –

A new drug called lenacapavir, which early trials have found is 100 percent effective in preventing HIV infection, has been hailed as a potential game-changer in the battle against the disease.

But concerns have been raised over its high price — US pharmaceutical giant Gilead has been charging around $40,000 per person per a year for the drug in some countries.

Last month Gilead announced deals with generic drugmakers to make and sell the drug at lower costs in some lower-income countries. However activists have warned that millions of people with HIV will not be covered by the deals.

Stegling said that such “game-changers will really only get us to the right reduction in new infections when we make sure that everybody will have access to them”.

UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima did not attend the press conference.

Byanyima revealed last week that her husband, veteran Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye, was “kidnapped” in neighbouring Kenya earlier this month.

UN rights chief Volker Turk has been among those calling for the Ugandan government to release Besigye, who appeared in a military court in the capital Kampala last week.

CAPPLETALI$M

Indonesia rejects Apple’s $100 million investment offer


By AFP
November 26, 2024

Apple's new iPhone 16 is not available in Indonesian stores, despite the tech giant's offer of $100 million in investments - Copyright AFP Frederic J. BROWN

Indonesia has rejected an Apple $100 million investment proposal aimed at lifting a ban on iPhone 16 sales, saying it lacks the “fairness” required by the government.

Indonesia last month prohibited the marketing and sale of the iPhone 16 model over Apple’s failure to meet local investment regulations requiring that 40 percent of phones be made from local parts as the country seeks to boost investments from giant tech companies.

Following the ban, Apple offered to increase its investments in Indonesia by $100 million to allow the new phone to be sold domestically.

But Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said Apple had not met the government’s requirements, especially when compared with the tech giant’s investments in other countries.

“Currently, Apple still has not invested in production facilities or factories in Indonesia,” he said in a statement released late Monday.

He said the ministry urged Apple to immediately set up a production facility or factory in Indonesia “based on the fairness principles” so the company does not have to file an investment scheme proposal every three years.

Despite the sales ban, the Indonesian government still allows iPhone 16 to be carried into Indonesia if they are not being traded commercially.

The government estimates about 9,000 units of the new model have entered the country that way.

Indonesia also banned the sale of Google Pixel phones for failing to meet the 40 percent parts requirement.

About 22,000 Google Pixel phones entered the country this year despite the ban.

IMPERIALISM

Bolivia announces $1 bn deal with China to build lithium plants

By AFP
November 26, 2024

The plants are to be situated in Bolivia's vast Uyuni salt flats

 - Copyright AFP/File Aizar RALDES

Bolivia said Tuesday it had signed a $1 billion deal with China’s CBC, a subsidiary of the world’s largest lithium battery producer CATL, to build two lithium carbonate production plants in the country’s southwest.

Bolivia’s state-owned Bolivia Lithium Deposits (YLB) said the plants — one with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate and the other of 25,000 – would be situated in the vast Uyuni salt flats.

Lithium, nicknamed “white gold,” is a key component in the production of batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones.

Bolivia claims to have the world’s largest lithium deposits.

President Luis Arce, who presided over Tuesday’s signing ceremony, said it paved the way for Bolivia to become “a very important player in determining the international price of lithium.”

The deal follows an earlier agreement reached last year between Russia’s Uranium One Group and YLB to build a $970 million lithium extraction facility, also in Uyuni.

Both deals have yet to be approved by Bolivia’s parliament.

Arce announced that negotiations were underway with China’s Citic Guoan Group for a third contract.

“We hope to close that deal as soon as possible,” he said.