Make Poverty History?
Bob Geldof, et al, did a good job; sponsoring Live-8 musical to draw attention to world poverty on the eve of now familiar annual session of the G-8 the world’s most rich and powerful. So far so good. The G-8 session ended. The protesters were beaten and barricaded, and not allowed to go anywhere near the summit or the summiteers.
The G-8 apparently broke some new grounds; pledged some relief and some new aid; put their signatures on the pledges. Yet going by two things, the fate of past pledges and the stubborn refusal to do away with enormous subsidies, diminish the euphoria generated by all the gymnastics like Live-8 and Africa Commission. The poor in Africa cannot feed upon assurances of charity alone; the poor are poor for structural tyranny imposed from outside and trade barriers that rob the poor of whatever comparative advantages they still have. While pledges are empty unless made good the refusal to come clean and do away with farm subsidies by the ‘donors’ is a monumental hypocrisy.
Live-8 musical extravaganza is good spectacular entertainment at enormous expense but at the end of the day it is a passing fantasy unless followed by full delivery of what is pledged and full and fair justice for the poor.
The poor cannot afford to give up hope; hope is one of the few possessions they have. But if hope was enough poverty would have been history already. No, poverty has a long dark history; history of colonial subjugation, plunder and theft of resources from colonies to build prosperity for the rulers; and even now that history is by and large unbroken though the method and means of plunder and prejudice have become more subtle but no less pervasive. Both bilaterally and multilaterally the poor are getting a raw deal. Reforms and open markets are rammed down the throat of poor indebted countries while the rich countries aided by the international finance (and trade) institutions - the IMF, World Bank, and the WTO - manage to obfuscate and defer actions that have been long demanded and are overdue if the G-8 is to be taken seriously. The rich and the powerful within and outside the exclusive Club of Eight wish to remain beyond and above the rules that apply ironically to the poor and the weak only. When the chips are down, the plutocracy of the rich reign sometimes with shameless hypocrisy yet never fails to announce lofty rhetoric. This does not wash; many activists in Africa and elsewhere are finding out the contradiction.
And celebrities like Bob Geldof and Bono and others not so famous have made a statement. But again, they could well be gently seduced to join the establishment figures for example like Gordon Brown whose ultimate loyalty is to deflect decisive but painful actions at home.
As it is, the doubling of aid to Africa does not come to effect till 2010- a date deferred enough to see the back of many of the signatories at Gleneagles summit of 2005.
Live-8 and other spectacles fascinate, entertain, and assuage the charitable impulse of the wealthy and famous. But these are insufficient, if not a little vulgar or inappropriate, instruments; these mean and do so little to the millions of impoverished farmers and unemployed who have little access to such extravagance and derive so little comfort.
Husain
Dhaka
Inayat Bunglawala: His master’s voice
This is in reference to Yamin Zakaria’s informative letter of July 1 ‘Knights and lords of Muslim Council’ exposing the Muslim Council of Britain’s (MCB) evil design of diluting Islamic tenets.
The MCB is set up and funded by the British government to modernize Islam as part of Uncle Sam and Blair’s ‘crusade’ against Islam. In his zeal to please some people, MCB spokesman Inayat Bunglawala proved his ignorance by making rude comments about Muslim women who wear the hijab (head scarf), calling them ‘narrow-minded’ and ‘rebellious’.
Although the MCB is not the voice of Muslims, but the voice of its ‘crusader’ masters, we should not feel frustrated. During the colonial era, the British colonial masters of India used similar tricks of nurturing groups of ‘modern’ Muslims to mislead the true believers. For that reason, today we find that many educated Muslims of the Indian sub-continent, especially from our previous generations, have countless misconceptions about our religion. Even then I would say that their scheme of weakening Islam was short lived since only after the span of a century or so we see that such groups preaching a ‘modern’ Islam are struggling to be accepted by mainstream Muslims. In some places a few reactionary people are even going as far as to try to brand such groups as non-Muslims - which is wrong.
Now I would like to request Mr. Bunglawala to go through the following verse of Sura Noor once again: ‘And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity, and not to show off their beauty except that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their beauty except to their own husbands or fathers or husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or the children who have not attained knowledge of what is hidden of women. And let them not stamp their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that you may be successful.’ [Quran (24:31)]
If Mr. Bunglawala still feels that head-covering should not be part of Muslim women’s attire then he needs to study some more to find out how the verses of the Quran pertaining to women’s dress code [(An-Noor: 31), (Al-Ahzab: 33, 59] were interpreted by our Prophet (peace be upon him) at the time of their revelation and how the Muslim women of that time modified their attire to conform to the Quranic mandate.
Today young Muslims of Bangladesh and Pakistan are more aware and informed than the previous generation. Therefore, the activities of the enemies of Islam need not panic us. We can just relax and watch the events unfold. After all, Allah has said: ‘ Wa makaroo wa makara-Allah, wa-Allahu khairul maakireen’ (And they schemed, and Allah schemed against them; and Allah is the best of schemers.) Quran (3:54).
Shukla Mirza
Ontario, Canada
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