firstperson

Exposing media fanatics

Self-criticism is a kind of luxury in which most journalists may not indulge in

By Abdullah Khoso

Robert Ferguson has been working as a senior lecturer in Education at the School of Culture, Language and Communication, Institute of Education, University of London, since 1994. He has also been the course leader of the master's programme in Media, Culture and Communication during this period. Ferguson has been in the education sector for the last 24 years. From 1984 to 1994, he worked as the head of Media Studies, Joint Department of English and Media Studies, and the academic head of the Department of Educational Media, Institute of Education, University of London.

Of Robert Ferguson's many books, two are particularly important: Representing Race: Ideology, Identity and the Media and The Media in Question. The former is an analysis of the intellectual and historical base without which understanding the media is impossible. Ferguson tires to situate media discourse in the context of ethnocentrism, orientalism, ideology and representation, and draws on examples from newspapers, films, radio and television. His overview demonstrates a close association between representations of 'normality' and 'ethnocentrism'.

In the latter book, Robert Ferguson examines the contemporary research on media and cultural studies, and its impact in the context of rapid development in media technologies. He points at changing definitions and contexts of media studies through critical investigation. Moreover, Ferguson has been working as a broadcaster for more than two decades. His is currently researching on the representation of history on television. The News on Sunday interviewed him recently. Excerpts follow:



The News on Sunday: How does the European media portray Islam and Muslims?

Robert Ferguson: This, of course, is a difficult question, because there was a time even before 9/11 when there were plenty of people who were aware that it was problematic the way the non-Muslim world saw the Muslim world. Though it has been a problem always, it was treated in a light-hearted way before 9/11. I think that the media, especially newspapers, is much more likely to be ethnocentric or Islamophobist. If you ask most people on the street they will get confused about who is Muslim and who is not, as many people in the United States are confused if anyone asks them where is Iraq. In fact, this becomes a much more virulent kind of ethnocentrism against people seen as the Muslims.

TNS: What kind of debate was initiated in Europe after the publication of caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in a Danish newspaper?

RF: What was done in the Danish case has brought to the fore an old debate: if you have the right to speak, how much are you allowed to say, if it offends others? And if you are allowed to say what you like and you will offend others, to what extent should you mind your manners? I think that people need to be responsible; they should be able to say what they want to say, but in a responsible manner. What you should not be able to say, however, is anything that acts against the forces of democracy. For example, no one should be allowed to say all the Jews should be killed, because it is not a democratic thing to say. Democratically, you are not allowed to kill someone. So I do not approve of that; it should not be allowed and it should be illegal.

TNS: Was the publication of the caricatures a responsible and harmless thing to do?

RF: The publication of the caricatures was harmful, as well as irresponsible. In fact, religion was used as a tool to promote ethnocentrism.

TNS: Were there any hidden motives behind the publication of the caricatures?

RF: Denmark has strict immigration policies, which essentially means that it is careful about dark-skinned people. So there is a dimension to this, at least in one respect. Of course, there currently is Islamophobia in the air in Europe. The people are terrified and they have become anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim. A lot of this is based on fear and ignorance. In one sense, this fear is real too, because they have seen so many things happening in the world, such as 9/11. However, equating all the Muslims with terrorism is wrong.

TNS: Can you give us an example of a terrorist act by a Christian fundamentalist?

RF: There are people who are doing it, but they may not be doing it for the sake of Christianity. Their main motivation may not be religious; it may be social. There are fundamentalists who are shooting doctors and surgeons who carry out abortions. They think that they have a religious justification for doing this. Christian fundamentalist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, do exist and their ethnocentrism is awful. Fundamentalists are everywhere, in every religion.

TNS: What kind of fear is attached with black people irrespective of their beliefs?

RF: The idea of anti-Muslim is because of an image of a specific person in mind. It is a certain kind of person, by definition a dark-skinned, bearded man wearing a certain kind of gear. We have not constructed such images ourselves; very often we have learned them through the media. People in big cities have not met anybody, but have just seen images on the screen. What they are frightened of is kind of a fanatic that is being projected in newspapers.

TNS: How does the European media deal with an event?

RF: Television news channels will always say, with some justification though, their responsibility is to inform people about what is happening in the world, but details and explanation of that will be in current affair programmes or documentaries. Moreover, there is no time in the news to give details and explanation. The debate, however, is how much explanation one can give in the news and what kind of explanation. There can be many sides, but usually we have to listen to both sides of the argument. There, however, are certain issues in the world about which you necessarily do not listen to both sides or you do listen to both sides but one side seems to be much louder than the other. What we have as news, which is predominantly reporting, is what is going on in the world, but there can always be reporting from another point of view.

TNS: Is the approach of the European media to Muslims getting better or worse?

RF: This question is nearly unanswerable, but we can say it has got worse in recent years, because of a mixture of fear and the fact that this fear is entirely faceless. The European media on the whole has demonised the Muslims, though the Muslims have done fantastic things too.

TNS: How much self-criticism is being exercised in journalism in Europe?

RF: Usually self-criticism and journalism do not go together. If journalists will be self-critical, they will be out of job pretty quickly. Journalists work for different newspapers and different newspapers do things differently. However, we cannot say this about all journalists. Some of them are very reflective and do think. A tiny minority of journalists may even be self-critical but mostly they are critical of society, of how things are going on. Self-criticism is a kind of luxury in which most journalists may not indulge in; it makes them weak or not up to the job. This does not necessarily mean that journalists are responsible for all the bad things in the world or whatever wrongs are being committed against the Muslims, but I am sure that some of them do help.

TNS: How do you see the relationship between the real world and the media?

RF: I do not think that there is any difference between the two; they essentially are the same thing. You can walk into a television studio, with media people watching, recording and cooperating with you. Now representation is becoming part of the real world, part of our existence. It is a fact that the media represents the real world in such a way that it has become part of the real world itself.

TNS: How do you see the future of the media?

RF: Technology is likely to develop so much that we may not be able to conceive yet how sophisticated the media may become, but this will only be a technological development and not necessarily a conceptual development. This may also have an impact on jobs, which, in turn, will influence the way the world operates -- the realities of the world become very harsh when people start to lose their ability to live as they once lived. When the media will become more sophisticated technologically, how it will interact with the people is still very much an unchartered territory. The media will not lead the world neither the world will ever operate now without the media, so the two are stuck.

(Email: abdullahkhoso@hotmail.com)

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/aug2008-weekly/nos-24-08-2008/pol1.htm#3

Pollution through aquaculture

THIS is apropos of Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Ali Bhurgari’s statement (July 9) in which he stated that the Sindh government would allot 20,000 acres for the development of aquaculture in the province on modern lines.

The ministry would extend its full support to a project of the federal ministry for food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) through which model fish and shrimps farms will be set up and the cage system will be introduced in the province. Initially the project would be commenced in Thatta and Badin districts.

In fact, aquaculture or underwater factories or fish farming is the fastest growing food production sector in the world but the notable minister, perhaps, is quite unaware of the dangers of aquaculture. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the underwater factories have grown three times faster than the land - based animal agriculture.

In the aquafarms, in the ocean, close to shorelines, fish is packed into nets or mesh cages. Packed into cages, the fish remains subject to diseases and pollution. It becomes difficult to manage the pollution and disease issues in the factories.The FAO says that “conditions on aquafarms are so horrendous that on some farms 40 per cent of fish may die before farmers can kill and package them for food”. The aquafarms require more money than the wild-caught fish in the sea, rivers and ponds.Fish lives in the filthy areas. Besides, it pollutes the environment with the fish excrement, chemical-laden fish feed and diseased fish dead bodies.

This type of fish production not only leads to sufferings for the fish and fishers but also to ecological damage.By promoting the underwater factories, a fisherman feels threatened because by doing this the price of the fish will come down and the traditional territories where a common fisherman does his job will be occupied by the new factories. That will not merely take away the jobs from the fishermen but possibly will have huge impact on the wild stocks.

Through this letter and in the light of the issues mentioned, I would ask the minister to peep into the matter before heading for the aquaculture industry. To me, for a sustainable fishing industry, the minister should prepare a fisheries policy that must ensure the livelihood of a common fisherman and protection of ecology and wild fish stock.If a poor fisherman and his family are economically content and the environment is protected from pollution, then the country can grow and flourish. The aquaculture will, otherwise, destroy everything.

ABDULLAH KHOSO

Karachi

http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/16/letted.htm#2

Danish tragedy

The murder of a Pakistani girl in Denmark by her family has sparked a fierce debate about the role of Islam and Pakistani culture in honour killing

By Abdullah Khoso

Uzair Jaleel, like several other Pakistanis in Europe, was worried over the killing of Ghazala, 19, in full view of several on-lookers and in broad day light by her elder brother. When on September 23, 2005 the news of this so called honour killing spread like a wildfire and reached Uzair, he was shocked. The incident made him look at himself to see if he wanted the same identity for himself as the girl's brother who shared with him the country of his origin -- Pakistan. While travelling in a train on the way to downtown Copenhagen, this is how he comments on the issue: "Everyone is pointing an accusing finger at us by denouncing Ghazala's death in one of the world's most democratic countries. These fingers symbolically make us conscious of not only what's being done now but also since unknown times.

"Reports say that Ghazala, a day before she was killed, married Abbas, a 27-year-old man of Afghan origin, supposedly without the consent of her family. Before their marriage, the couple escaped from their homes in Copenhagen's Amager locality to a nearby city called Jutland where they married secretly at the city hall. Ghazala then told one of her female relatives about her secret marriage. She did not know that she will be betrayed. In the attack that followed, her husband survived by a hair's breadth.Ghazala's killer was arrested soon after the murder, and after a month police arrested six more members of his family, all allegedly part of the conspiracy to hunt down and kill the unfortunate girl.Reports say a strong network of taxi-drivers is also involved in hunting her down. This is a fact acknowledged by Anne Mau, secretary of Denmark's National Association of Women's Crisis Centres, in an online newsletter 'Modern Tribalist'. Her association has provided protection to many immigrant women on the run from their families. She says Pakistani taxi-network works systematically to find the women out who flee their families. The drivers, she says, alert these women's relatives about their whereabouts. The families usually send a picture around of the wanted woman through the mobile phone. "Then the hunt begins," Mau says. "This way many women have been discovered on the street, caught, and delivered back to their families." Only few of them manage to make good their escape though it's not sure how long can they stretch it.


Ghazala, however, suffered something much more cruel than the disgrace and humiliation of a forcible reunion with the family. Belonging to a Gujar family, she apparently forgot that death was the only option for her family to 'redeem' its 'honour' which stood 'soiled' by her act of defiance. This is what several innocent girls suffer silently in her native country. "It is a horrible thing. Her family should have come to terms with her decision instead of her trying to reconcile with them. Her family should have realised that they live in Denmark which is not a fundamentalist society," says Jonathan Staav, a Canadian studying in Denmark. "I cannot even imagine doing what her brother did to her. There is millions of miles of distance between her brother's act and my thinking.


"It's quite logical for people like to connect an individual's act with the values and customs of the whole society where Ghazala had come from. "This act shows the society in question has failed to inculcate a true picture of good social and religious values in its members," is how a German student commented on the issue. Though many moderate Muslims would like to oppose honour murders but unluckily for them ever new stories about these murders keep being splashed in the media, taking in their range societies as distant and diverse as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Britain and Jordan. "This kind of act demeans the whole humanity, turning it into something inferior -- verging on beastly," says Shanker, an Indian-born Dane. Another Dane writes to Dhimmi Watch (an online news magazine), "It's primitive fascism." Still another local resident comments: "it is, a horrible, pre-meditated, senseless murder of the worst kind of a defenceless innocent woman, more so because it is done by people from her own family." In his anger, he forgets the difference between the individual and the collective and ascribes it to the "animalistic attitude" prevalent only among the Muslims. "There is no hue and cry from the Mullahs or any Muslims demonstrating against this murder of an innocent girl. (She was not even marrying a non-Muslim)."When western watchers and readers of acts like Ghazala's murder trace their relation to values of a country or Islam, it is comprehensible as well as painful for someone coming linked to them.


These acts provide Islam-bashers mouthful stuff to spit on the values of Islam. Which Mette, a Dane, is apparently right to say that "honour killing does not save honour". It rather brings down the honour of a whole family, a culture and a country.But at the same time these westerners should be forgiven if they see crimes like honour killing in broad day light in a religious and cultural context. Someone writing to Dhimmi Watch says the (gender) inequality, sanctioned by the Quran and strictly enforced by the Muslims, can only bring sorrow to those less equal. "Societal oppression is a foregone conclusion" under these circumstances. "Systemic theofascism would be a good pathological description for Islam."Like most people writing for this magazine, the identity of this person is not revealed. His/her anger leads her to rather drastic conclusions: 'Honour' murder is the kind of thing that comes to mind when I hear peaceful, moderate Muslims speak after each and every atrocity. They ceaselessly disavow terrorism while their own holy book and culture promote the same horror on their own flesh and blood. It's hard to wrap the mind around such twisted logic.

"Mohammad Ali Baloch, 32, who has been staying in Denmark for the last three years, opines that it's not others' fault if they blame Islam or Islamic culture for the crimes like honour killing. "Not everywhere one can and should practice obsolete tribal traditions, though they are central in our cultural system." Like everyone else back home, he was also taught how to value honour because it's important in the society back home "what people will say" if a woman of the family acts defiantly. During his years in Denmark, Ali seems to have become quite aware of the human rights and the value of upholding them. No wonder, he categorically condemns innocent Ghazala's killing for she had committed no sin.Jonathan Staav, the Canadian, is one of the few foreigners willing to see Ghazala's murder as an individual as an individual act, and not as a part of the whole called Islam. "Murder is murder; we should consider it no part of Islamic culture because Islam does allow his followers of any gender to marry as per their wish.


"Ihsan Miran, a Pakistan studying in Denmark, takes this opinion further and with much more vigour. "It has nothing to do with Islam and Pakistan, though people consider it an expression of something in Pakistani culture. But our constitution and Islamic teachings want us to be moderate human beings rather than act like barbarians as Ghazala's killer has done," he says.