Have a Creative Outlet

lent direct action

Before I unpack the above statement, I want to bring into the equation one insight I got from teaching Peace and Conflict Studies this semester

While exploring the roots of conflict among humans, we came across multiple theories in class

Some theories placed the roots of conflict within human nature while others placed the roots in the structures humans live in In other words, humans intrinsically are not violent rather it s the surrounding structures in the shape of family society and culture, that make them violent

For healing, be it at the individual level or social level, one must have a creative outlet through which one can pour out what is staying within or through which one can interact with the life happening to us nonstop There can be many forms of creative outlets at the individual level For some, writing can be a creative outlet while for others it can be reading For some, teaching can be a creative outlet while for others singing and dancing can be a creative outlet For some, friends and family can be creative outlets while for others Allah or religion can be creative outlets

E d i t o r ’ s m a i l

S e n d y o u r l e t t e r s t o : L e t t e r s t o E d i t o r, Pakistan Today, 4 - S h a a re y F a t i m a J i n n a h L a h o re P a k i s t a n E - m a i l : l e t t e r s @ p a k i s t a n t o d a y c o m p k L e t t e r s s h o u l d b e a d d re s s e d t o Pakistan Today e x c l u s i v e l y

Aid and influence

R U R A L Sindh has been facing significant challenges since the floods that hit the country last year with many communities barely surviving amid food insecurity and other issues The situation is particularly dire for women and children, who are often the most vulnerable in times of crisis

Tribal conflicts and poor administration have only exacerbated the situation in rural Sindh, with many people feeling that they have no one to turn to for help The lack of effective governance has also meant that much-needed development projects have been put in hold leaving many communities without access to basic necessities, like education, healthcare and clean water It is deeply concerning that the Sindh government is believed to be impeding humanitarian response efforts by civil society organisations, and that is delaying the provision of aid It is also concerning that district administrations are prioritising areas under political influence It is important that all tiers of governance and administration should take steps to ensure that humanitarian response efforts are allowed to proceed smoothly

It is also essential that civil society organisations are able to provide services without interference or pressure from various groups

Unfortunately, the situation in rural Sindh is being further complicated by the action of a few in power who want civil society organisations to support specific interests rather than the victims This has discouraged many an organisation to step back, adding to the woes of the common man

ZAHEER UDIN BABAR JUNEJO HYDERABAD

Poultr y prices and car telisation

T h e verbal public sparring between the federal government and the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) continues through advertisements and media campaigns on the issue of importing genetically modified organism (Gmo) soybean

The federal minister for national food security briefing the media about the decision of the cabinet, said that the import of Gmo soybean was not allowed in the country, and the ships that are currently anchored in Karachi with this type of soybean should be redirected

AS part of our Decolonial Research Course in which I am enrolled and which has been initiated by the Center for Critical Peace Studies (CCPS) at the University of management & Technology (UmT) Lahore each week we have a session with faculty and students from the University of Toronto, Canada, under a collaborative initiative entitled Seeds for Change which is a global initiative in which scholars, authors, community leaders, elders, activists, and youth from across the globe gather every monday and shareground knowledge based on ancestral notions of reciprocity and pedagogies of liberation

Seeds for Change is a political pedagogical working space in alignment with decolonizing practices where transformational teaching and learning happen beyond the binary each session is grounded in teachings revolving around Love, Respect, Wisdom, Bravery, Truth, humility, and honesty

Last week, under the “Seeds for Change” initiative, we were assigned a letter from martin Luther King for reading and reflection We were divided into groups for developing presentations over the reading martin Luther King wrote this letter in 1963 at a time when he was in Birmingham city jail for provoking a non-violent direct action against the discrimination meted out to black people in the USA in the shape of racism

The letter I must say is very insightful in the sense that although it talks about that time’s structural violence present in the social milieu of the USA in the shape of racism and injustice resulting from it, it can resonate with everyone in their present context who are facing structural violence directly or indirectly or in one shape or another shape So alive that letter is!

While reading that letter and as part of the assignment members in each group were supposed to pick out lines that resonated with them and then present them in the class After reading the letter I came across a lot of interesting insights I can’t share all of them; however, I would share the one I found most resonating At one point in the letter martin Luther King warns people in authority about what can happen if they don’t allow people to express their emotions in non-violent ways and this is how he puts it:

“If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history So I have not said to my people: “Get rid of your discontent ” Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonvio-

Among the theorists, who placed the roots of violence among humans in structures is Albert Bandura, the Canadian-American Psychologist he says that a child s first interaction is with family So if a family is violent a child will naturally absorb all these attitudes more importantly, he says that childhood abuses in the shape of beating insult and sexual abuse and so on make children vulnerable to violence in a sense that all these experiences create complexes within children and when they don’t find a way to express them or address them, they become violent

To support his claim, Albert Bandura interviewed a lot of prisoners in US jails, and, from those interviews, he deduced that if there was one thing common among the majority of the prisoners it was they had a turbulent childhood

When martin Luther King puts it in the way that repressed emotions should be given a channel or when Albert Bandura puts it in the way that unaddressed traumas in children reflect themselves in violence, I think we need to ponder upon them as these insights explain a lot about multiple forms of violence, including direct and structural violence, that we observe in our society all-round, day in day out, in the shape of gender discrimination, domestic violence, mob violence and religious extremism, among others Both at the individual and social levels, so many things happen to us, stay in us, and eat at us; however, we have limited avenues where we can reflect upon them properly There is a lot of suffocation within us both at the individual and social level, and that is why we see reactionary approaches all around us 24/7

No matter which creative outlet you choose, at least have one creative outlet in life through which you can interact with life fully have one creative outlet in life through which you can remain the real you not the filtered you Unfortunately, the majority of us live filtered lives have one creative outlet through which you can address whatever is happening to you have one creative outlet in life through which everything comes out of you and nothing stays inside you

We need to understand the fact and this is how Mar tin Luther King also put it in his letter that the best way to deal with discontent is to channel it through a creative outlet. If discontent is not channeled in this way, this has been a pattern of history that discontent reflects itself in violence, be it at the individual level or group level

The same goes for the healing of society or maybe the state Society must encourage creative outlets through which its constituents or members can express themselves Universities can turn out to be creative outlets for the healing of students media can turn out to be creative outlets for the healing of society Research think tanks can turn out to be creative outlets for healing states All these places or in a summarized way civil society can turn out to be a source of healing for society if they genuinely perform their roles Any society that suppresses its creative outlets becomes suffocated for human existence

We need to understand the fact and this is how martin Luther King also put it in his letter that the best way to deal with discontent is to channel it through a creative outlet If discontent is not channeled in this way, this has been a pattern of history that discontent reflects itself in violence, be it at the individual level or group level

Inamullah Marwat is a lecturer at the Department of Political Science & International Relations at the University of Management & Technology (UMT), Lahore He can be reached at inamullah marwat@umt edu pk

In this regard, the minister also mentioned the government’s responsibility under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity What the minister is trying to implement today is politically unpopular, but is in line with the said protocol on its part, the PPA says that the price of chicken is increasing in the country because of unavailability of feed meant for chicken consumption in which soybean happens to be an essential ingredient The poultry industry is facing a serious crisis if the ships anchored in Karachi are not allowed to unload the consignment It should be noted that the PPA which is currently placing advertisements in national media in an effort to safeguard its interests, has in the past itself promoted anti-competitive practices within the industry In this regard the Supreme Court has recently decided an important case partially upholding a decision of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) against the menace of cartelisation in the poultry industry The CCP authorities should further investigate the affairs of PPA and its members to probe recent price hike of eggs and chicken meat in the country

DR HAFIZ AZIZ UR

REHMAN ISLAMABAD

Inflation and apathy

I T should be a matter of huge embarrassment for a country that calls itself an agricultural economy to have soaring food inflation resulting in rampant poverty compounded misery, especially among the downtrodden segments of society

The devastating floods last year played havoc with the country, pushing millions of people into abject poverty, increasing the poverty rate to 35 7 per cent, according to the World Bank The food cycle, from the farm to the table, stands disrupted The country is struggling to make even food grain available to the masses, with wheat flour being either unavailable or beyond the buying power of the people

Footages and images in mainstream media showing the poor running after and fighting over flour bags with money in their hands have left the entire nation dejected There have also been saddening and disturbing reports on social media of people getting killed in stampedes while trying to get a hand on flour bag to feed their hungry children and family members And yet we continue to call ourselves an agricultural country The leadership across the political divide, as has always been the case, is busy spewing venom against each other adding more toxicity to the horribly murky environment It rightly seems that apathy on the part of our politicians is at its peak, and the lust for power seems to be the only thing that matters to them

It is really quite unfortunate that both government and opposition parties have miserably failed in providing food items on reasonable rates and other basic amenities of life to the poor segments of society They, the politicians, continue to claim that all their actions are meant to alleviate the sufferings of the masses, but all their actions continue to add to the woes of the masses

The elite class is hardly bothered by market manipulations and spike in food inflation that has become a matter of life and death for the underprivileged daily-wager who earns a meagre amount every day to feed his family SAJJAD

KHATTAK ATTOCK

Inviting a historian

P R o F e S S o R Irfan habib is a renowned professor emeritus at the Aligarh muslim University his corpus on Indian history is impressive In a recent online note to a friend of mine in Tharparkar, he wrote: “I regret that despite writing a book [on the] Indus Civilisation, I have never been able to see a major Indus site let alone mohenjo Daro

It would be wonderful if the Sindh government, with a nod from Islamabad, were to invite Prof habib for a couple of weeks to visit all the sites of interest to him along the Indus of course his trip (via Dubai) and his stay should be covered by our government; provincial or federal The latter should also think of this visit as a way to rebuilding bridges with India that have been damaged in the last few years Such a trip would of course help to enliven historical scholarship locally through interaction between the learned professor and local academics as well as his television appearances Q ISA