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issue Yeh Woh Coal-fired
contention operation The
other side of
issue Diamer-Bhasha dam
is the most important under construction hydropower project in Pakistan at
present. It is being constructed on the Indus River on the boundary of
Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This USD12 billion project
was unanimously approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI) in July
2010, and in October 2011 former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
inaugurated the project. The 272-metre high roller
compacted concrete (RCC) dam will be the highest of this form of dams in the
world after completion. The dam will store 8.1 million acre feet water with
live water storage (useable) of 6.4 million acre feet and also produce 4,500
megawatts of hydropower. It will also help control flood damage downstream in
the Indus during high floods. The dam will also enhance the life of Tarbela
Dam by 35 years by trapping sedimentation upstream. The dam, which Wapda —
the executing agency of Diamer-Bhasha Dam Project — terms a highest
priority, has received a massive blow as leading donors of the project, the
Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, are not that keen to fund it. “In June this year, the
ADB communicated to Wapda about its concerns over the project while the World
Bank is more interested in funding the 4,320MW Dasu dam project situated 70
kilometres downstream in Kohistan area of KPK,” a senior official of Wapda
tells TNS. This decision of the ADB
would result in escalation of the construction cost of the project by more
than USD1.5 billion. “It would take at least
two to three more years than scheduled time which means Pakistan would be
deprived of at least USD5 billion in terms of annual benefits of the
project,” says the Wapda official. The official adds that the main
objection of the WB and the ADB is that the dam is situated in disputed
territory of Kashmir. “In fact, it is done because of backdoor efforts of
India. Interestingly, the same financing institutions had funded Mangla Dam
project that was situated in Kashmir.” On August 10, the issue was
also discussed by Senate’s Committee on Water and Power. Chairman of the
committee, Zahid Khan of the ANP, who presided over the meeting seemed
inclined towards the WB offer on Dasu dam. Wapda chairman Shakil
Durrani told the committee, “The government’s priority is Bhasha dam, and
not Dasu project, and the World Bank is not responsible for making policies
in Pakistan. We have made it clear to all donors that Pakistan will not give
preference to Dasu over Bhasha.” Later talking to TNS,
Durrani said, “If Bhasha is getting delayed why Wapda is not starting work
on Dasu which is equally important. It will also provide almost similar
megawatts of electricity. I have called a joint meeting of Wapda, Economic
Division and Planning Division after Eid. They will have to tell us the real
problem and the solutions of the issue. We face people while our bureaucrats
sit in offices and make policies which suit them.” A Wapda official says that
Dasu is a run-of-the-river project which will store negligible water.
“Water storage is a huge issue. The major reservoirs of the country have
already lost around 30 per cent storage capacity due to sedimentation. At
present, Tarbela Dam’s storage capacity is diminishing with 5,000 tons of
silt filling its reservoir daily. The total water storage capacity of Tarbela,
Mangla and Chashma stands at 14.22 million acre feet at present which is not
enough for even 30 days.” The official adds that work
on both dams cannot be started simultaneously and if Wapda starts work on the
Dasu project, Diamer-Bhasha project will be delayed at least for 10 years.
“Work on Diamer-Bhasha dam is in advance stage while engineering design of
Dasu dam would be completed in 2013,” he says. The government of Pakistan
so far, has spent Rs16 billion on the project. Rs7 billion has already been
distributed among dam affectees through the Gilgit-Baltistan government. “Besides acquiring land
for the project, 13 local contracts for construction of colonies for Wapda
officials and allied infrastructure for the dam have already been awarded
while international competition bidding for the main construction of the dam
can be initiated at any time,” a spokesperson for Wapda tells TNS. With the ADB and the WB
backing out, the government of Pakistan and Wapda are in contact with China,
Islamic Development Bank and other bilateral and multilateral finance
institutions. A meeting of officials of
Ministry of Water and Power and Wapda held at Islamabad on August 13 to
discuss the latest situation of the project. The meeting discussed financial
aspects of the project in details. The meeting decided to seek Chinese
support to construct the dam. “Financing a project like
Diamer-Bhasha dam is not a big issue. The government and Wapda are committed
to this project and soon will start main construction work. It is true that
backing off of the ADB can delay the project for a couple of years, but it
will be completed ultimately.”
Yeh
Woh With the mobile
phone companies offering ‘Good bye Ramzan’ ringtones; employees who
haven’t worked for a whole month, scrambling to take off for an extended
holiday; and food prices jumping up another notch in anticipation of Eid
shopping rush, the holy month has come to an end and with it goes any
semblance of normalcy in our daily lives. It’s time for all sorts
of jokers hoarding sawaab, barkat, and calories — not necessarily in the
same order — in the confines of their comfortable farm houses, or
acclimatising themselves for heaven in the cool climes of Europe, to come
back refreshed and reinvigorated, to their true calling that is making our
lives more miserable and deaths cheaper than they already are. The most dutiful among them
are the people charged with deciding how much electricity and gas the
consumers need not have. The only state responsibility that is discharged
responsibly, several times every day, without fail, is cutting off the supply
of basic utilities. They have been at it even during Ramzan, despite promises
to the contrary by the highest jokers in the state. They’ll come back with
a vengeance and squeeze every last watt out of the supply chain to make up
for the generosity shown on Independence Day, when apparently all of Pakistan
had electricity, all day. Fighters — of both
uniformed and shalwar-qamees variety — will also be quick in returning.
They haven’t done any killings in a while and they are dying for some
action. The war theatre for Pakistani soldiers and Pakistani civilians, we
are told by the all-knowing Americans, will be North Waziristan. The military
action will produce hundreds of thousands of fresh IDPs (internally displaced
persons) and millions of dollars for the military. It will also help us
forget the utter failure of another military operation being carried out in
South Waziristan for nearly three years, during which only one of the six
sub-divisions has been cleared for IDPs to return. Politicians have their
plate full. Leaders of two parties were busy disrobing each other in public
when a truce was imposed in respect of the last ten days of Ramzan. They will
come back to resume debating the character of each other’s parents, wives
and children, and waving documentary evidence to support their claims and
blames. The ruling parties need to work out in what manner to send their
incumbent PM home and make some more money in electing the next. The Khan
will lead million men into South Waziristan where even the local
administrators and elected representatives don’t work or live. And all the
politicians will come clamouring for elections because that’s the only part
of democracy they know, care about, invest in, and enjoy. One reason for the
government employees — from a clerk and policeman to a director general and
secretary — to stop working during Ramzan is their reluctance to demand or
accept bribes during the holy month, and that leaves nothing else for them to
do. They’ll come back having calculated their lost earnings, and having
upwardly revised their rates accordingly. Getting the signature of a
government servant — which is all anyone can get out of them — will cost
a lot more starting this fall. Pakistan’s seedy media
uses the above mentioned jokers and their performances as oil for its wheels.
Minus the lubricant the wheels have been creaking and grinding. Newspapers
have had to fill the pages with international news and drab comments by
unpaid contributors; radio has had to throw in hamd and qawwali in place of
racy Bollywood songs; and television became decidedly bland and boring
despite the marketing teams’ best efforts to repackage Islam for telly and
sell it for profit. This industry needs at least a dozen more Aalims Online. Too much piety has been
spilled in the last month to last us another eleven. It’s time for dishing
out cheap and cheerful entertainment and sleaze-laced news and current
affairs this media cooks best. Men on television can loosen their tongues and
women can let the dupatta slip and their hair down, now that Allah has
stopped prying into their studios and everyone’s lives. The nation that
changes its character according to the month of the year, is switching into
high gear. Watch out little guys. But hey, it’s Eid, and
there’s got to be something to cheer, to be happy about. There is. The
government has announced three holidays that end on Wednesday. But following
a rigid national tradition, holidaymakers won’t be back till Sunday. That
gives us a whole week of Ramzan-like inactivity and serenity. Let’s enjoy
it while it lasts. masudalam@yahoo.com
Coal-fired
contention Not long ago, the
Pakistani government celebrated its decision to explore huge coal reserves
available in Thar, Sindh to meet the country’s ever-increasing demand of
energy and decrease dependence on imported fuels. It held road shows all over
the world and invited foreign investors to try their luck here. The response was mixed.
While some leading companies showed interest in the project, a few lenders
including the World Bank expressed reservations against the option for being
an environmental hazard. The government allocated a
couple of blocks in Thar to private companies for conventional mining, but at
the same time launched an Underground Coal Gasification (UGC) project to
counter opposition on environmental grounds. This technology converts
underground coal into gas while it is still in the coal seam, and this gas is
pushed to the surface and can be extracted from there. Three years down the road,
this project, headed by renowned nuclear scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand, is
at the centre of a controversy with supporters and opponents of the idea at
loggerheads with each other. At one time the odds are in the favour of the
doctor and at another in the favour of the opponents. Recently, the project got a
new lease of life when the prime minister released Rs900 million for it which
were long overdue. Prior to that, there was a lot of bickering on whether the
project is viable or mere waste of the country’s resources. The worst blow
came from Shahid Sattar, Member Planning Commission, who declared the project
non-feasible claiming the flame at a Thar well could hardly burn for around
four hours. Dr Samar Mubarkmand responded in no time claiming the said member
had not even visited the site but was badmouthing on behest of vested
interests. Irrespective of who is
right and who is wrong, one thing is for sure. The people of Pakistan are
confused and in a fix. They are not clear whether the plans worth billions to
produce gas, diesel and electricity through coal gasification in Thar will
materialise or just fizzle away. TNS contacted various stakeholders and
experts for a better understanding of the issue and received comments in the
favour of and against the project. A production engineer in a
gas exploration company in Pakistan believes UCG is viable in Thar but the
biggest issue is how to check the influx of underground water. The water
level is quite high in the area and in many cases it is too close to surface
which makes it difficult for the underground coal seam to burn, he says. Coal available in Thar, he
says, is lignite which is a low-rank fuel due to high moisture and
incombustible content. Transportation of lignite over long distances is not
feasible and it is preferred to treat it close to the deposit. Foreign
companies have dropped the idea of conventional mining of Thar coal in the
past when they found it was not so hard and dry, he adds. The claim of risk to water
reserves is backed by a Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) study
which terms the likely depletion of natural aquifiers the biggest casualty of
coal exploration programme. It adds there are three acquifiers — one at the
surface, second just above where the coal is and the third lies beneath the
layers of coal. Quite interestingly, the
opposition to UGC in Thar is based not on these grounds but on the assumed
failure of the project team to show encouraging results. And this has come
mainly from some members of the Planning Commission (PC), on which Dr Samar
Mubarakmand also has a representation as Member, Science and Technology. TNS contacted Shahid Sattar,
Member Energy PC, to seek his views on the project but he refused to talk on
the issue, saying he is not the spokesman for the commission. The next person
to approach was Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, Deputy Chairman PC, who said the version of
the commission was the same as given by the prime minister of Pakistan, who
also happens to be the chairman of the commission. The appreciation of the
prime minister has come in the form of release of funds and additional salary
payment to the whole team in recognition of their achievements. Dr Samar tells TNS the
project is a roaring success and delay, if any, has been solely due to the
suspensions of required funds. It is a pity that an outgoing secretary of the
Planning Commission ensured that not a single penny was released for the
project during his tenure, he adds. He says it’s a reality that power
generation from Thar coal would cost between Rs three and Rs four per unit
and diesel production from coal gas would cost $40 a barrel. “One can
imagine the profits involved as diesel is costing $135 per barrel to the
people of Pakistan.” The cost, he says, is a bit higher than that in South
Africa which produces diesel for $25 a barrel and China where it costs $28 a
barrel. Dr Samar says he has
received expressions of interest from several international companies who are
willing to invest in Thar even without a sovereign guarantee. “They are
seeing profits but those watching vested interests can’t.” The PM and his
team as well as media personnel themselves experienced how strongly the coal
gas was rising from the well, he states. He condemns a local daily
for carrying unsubstantiated claims about the non-viability of the project
and not carrying the reply he forwarded to them. The paper, he says, gave too
much space to a person who wrote UGC is not in use anywhere in the world. He
should have known that several countries including Russia, Canada,
Uzbekistan, Australia and China are widely benefiting from the use of this
technology. Countering the allegations
against the project, he claims that a gas flame had continued to burn for
almost four and half months and extinguished due to suspension in funds.
There are 38 other wells where such flames can be lit any time. He says there are 14
preconditions which have to be confirmed before initiating a coal
gasification project. Fortunately, Thar coal field fulfills all these
conditions. For example, the coal should be lignite, sulphur content should
be one per cent or less, depth should be more than 100 meters, thickness of
coal seam should be more than 2 meters, there should be road links and
pipelines for transportation of diesel and gas, soil should be solid and free
of cracks to stop gas from escaping etc. Oil seam here is on average between
10 metres to 20 metres thick, he says, adding no one came forward to
challenge the project on these grounds. Dr Samar is happy to have
funds at his disposal but asks for more as the current tranche will be spent
on procuring machinery and clearing the dues. These Rs 900 million had to be
disbursed before June 30 but were withheld intentionally to harm the project. He gets extremely uneasy
when asked to go for a third-party evaluation of the project. “Do you still
think there’s a need for it? Is the whistling sound of gas gushing through
the well top not enough to establish our success?”
operation The Pakistan
government and military have yet to announce the launching of the
long-awaited military operation against the militants in North Waziristan,
but the United States Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta and unnamed Pentagon
officials have publicly stated that the action in this troubled tribal region
would begin soon. The Americans could be
right as in the past also announcements about some important happenings in
Pakistan were first made in the US. Panetta based his information on the
recent conversations between the Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani and the US and Nato military commander in Afghanistan, General John
Allen. Kayani and Allen have held quite a few meetings in the recent months
as the latter was closely involved in the eventually successful efforts by
the US government officials to cut a deal with Pakistan to reopen the Nato
supplies routes. Pakistan for the last few
years has resisted the US pressure to undertake military operation in North
Waziristan and specifically target the Haqqani network, a potent faction of
the Afghan Taliban movement founded by mujahideen commander Maulvi Jalaluddin
Haqqani and presently led by his 34-year-old son Sirajuddin Haqqani. However,
it seems the Pakistan military is now willing to do the job, but at the time
of its own choosing as it has been arguing all along. Besides, it won’t be
going after the Haqqanis despite the US demand and, if one were to believe
Panetta, the main target of the military operation in North Waziristan would
be the Pakistani Taliban. Though the US would have
been happier if the Pakistanis had agreed to first target the Haqqani
network, the military operation in North Waziristan to some extent would help
its cause in the challenging environment of the Af-Pak region as the
Pakistani Taliban, led by Hakimullah Mahsud, haven’t hidden their ambition
to target American interests and had, on one occasion, come close to
achieving it by training Faisal Shahzad to carry out the aborted car-bombing
at the busy Times Square in New York. The US authorities would be
hoping, and not without reason, that the Haqqani network and the Pakistani
Taliban led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose peace agreement with the government
is intact, would be gradually drawn into the fighting in North Waziristan and
the Pakistan military would have no choice but to fight them also along with
the militants belonging to the Hakimullah Mahsud-headed Tehrik-i-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP). The priority for the
Pakistan military certainly would be to take on the TTP elements that have
found sanctuaries in North Waziristan after being evicted from most of their
strongholds in parts of neighbouring South Waziristan populated by the Mahsud
tribe as a result of the army action in October 2009. Together with
likeminded militants from the different jehadi groups and remnants of al-Qaeda
and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the TTP has become strong and
entrenched in North Waziristan despite the apparent displeasure of the non-TTP
Taliban faction of Hafiz Gul Bahadur. The military would be
careful not to alienate Hafiz Gul Bahadur as it goes after the TTP while
undertaking targetted operation as there would be the risk of pushing him
into a corner to make a common cause with Hakimullah Mahsud. Until now the
government and its intelligence agencies have worked hard to keep the
militant factions divided by cutting peace deals with commanders Hafiz Gul
Bahadur in North Waziristan and Maulvi Nazeer in South Waziristan and
fighting the TTP, but this strategy could unravel in the event of a careless
move or high number of civilian casualties. The US too could prove a spoiler
by continuing drone strikes without coordinating with the Pakistan military
or doing nothing as has been the case until now to check the cross-border
attacks by the Maulana Fazlullah-led Pakistani militants operating from the
eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. In fact, another nightmare
for Pakistan would be the possibility that Pakistani militants from North and
South Waziristan, as a result of the military operation, could cross over to
Afghanistan as happened with the Taliban from Swat and rest of Malakand
division and then launch cross-border attacks into the Pakistani territory. The military’s reasons
for not launching military action in North Waziristan until now included the
military being stretched fighting already on many fronts in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the need for
consolidating gains made in other conflict areas before opening a new front,
and the lack of resources for undertaking the new operation and caring for
the thousands of tribal people who would be displaced. After all most of the
tribal people displaced from South Waziristan two and a half years ago after
the military operation are yet to be repatriated and resettled. Another reason, which
isn’t mentioned, was the still intact peace accord between the government
and the Taliban faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who isn’t part of the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and is arguably the most powerful militant
commander in North Waziristan. Besides, Pakistan has been arguing that it was
time for the US to talk to the Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqanis,
instead of fighting them after Nato’s failure to force a military solution
of the Afghan conflict. It is a fact that Pakistani
authorities had never ruled out a military operation in North Waziristan.
Rather, one major military action was undertaken in 2004 that continued for
almost two years and was followed by a peace accord in September 2006 with
Hafiz Gul Bahadur and the tribal elders. The peace agreement was renewed
following another round of skirmishes in the subsequent years. Due to convergence of so
many militants of different persuasion in North Waziristan and the threat
emanating from there to the Pakistani state, the government and the military
were under tremendous pressure to go after the militant sanctuaries. One
could say that the military showed patience in the face of provocative acts
by the militants who attacked soldiers and continued challenging the writ of
the state and hosting foreigners. It seems the militants’
attack on the Pakistan Air Force airbase at Kamra on Thursday and the claim
of responsibility for it by the TTP would finally force the military’s
hands to expedite plans for the operation in North Waziristan.
The
other side of The London Olympics
2012 have been described as the most exhilarating party on this earth but
this was a scandalous party in which the very permanent residents of the city
were not invited, effectively cast asunder, discouraged and bullied by the
corporate elite. It’s a scandal of high proportions that the BBC would not
like the outside world to know that the Olympics was largely a cosmetic,
overblown public relations exercise, built on the back of taxes paid by
middle-income Britons, in particular Londoners who were once again made to
feel like aliens in their own homes. That these were people’s
sports and would “inspire a generation” was a crude joke to Londoners who
paid £9billion for these games but were shunted out to make space for the
filthy rich, oil oligarchs, Arab sheikhs and Britain’s own rich class that
is a minority. But it’s the same ruling class that ended up watching the
games, winning the medals and has everything to gain in the aftermath of
these games. In reality, these games
belonged to capitalist brands Coca Cola, Mcdonald’s, Visa, Cadbury,
ArcelorMittal, BMW and BP. The “official sponsors” contributed only £800million
but they determined the nature of the games and their brand enforces acted
like Taliban to implement and protect their brands’ promotion and the state
bended over happily to accommodate them. A walk in the Olympics Park
demonstrated at every step who are the real owners of these games. Long before the games
began, the disadvantaged communities of East London found their roads closed
on them for the Olympics luminaries, restrictions imposed on their daily
lives, racial minorities stopped and searched by a police which remains
deeply racist, communities put within the range of missile strikes, their
houses taken over almost on gunpoint for military sites — their life, work,
leisure and everything else disrupted, hundreds of them literally cleansed
prior to the games to make way for the Olympic village. With the games over,
thousands more are now facing eviction from their homes where they have lived
for decades. The government can make any
grandiose boast about these games but it will not rub away the fact that
these games have torn communities apart and even worse is to come as more
space is created for the affluent and the corporate sharks. The right-wing Tory cabinet
and London’s Tory Mayor, all of them private school educated with vast
sports facilities available, are already gearing up for another go at power
after next general election, holding up the London Olympics as a proof of
their organisational brilliance. The mainstream media is silent over the ugly
aspect of these games as it needs to put up a frivolous nationalistic fervour
to keep the minds distracted from the bad news, but the scale of the scandal
is so big that it cannot be buried. The mood of jubilation will pass and when
the hype subsides to a manageable proportion, it will be the victims of
London Olympics 2012 who will stare ahead into darkness, alone and helpless. Left-wing campaigner and
intellectual Lindsey German shared her grief over the plight of tens of
thousands of victims, most located around the Olympics Park. “We ask what
the legacy of these games will be — continued housing crisis while more
flats are built for the rich, few sports facilities for East End kids? “Meanwhile, inequality
grows in one of the richest cities in the world. The world media is taken in
by this spectacle but we have seen protests over a range of issues. After the
games the real economic crisis will become clear and resentment against the
games will grow further,” she told this correspondent. But there are not many
alternative voices coming forth, for the spectacle was so big and the
so-called good news so soothing that many have felt repressed to talk about
it. Britain’s left, democrats and anyone who cares for fundamental human
rights of fellow human beings should have been in uproar over this, but it
seems that the very people who make a living out of the human rights industry
are blinded in their false belief that communities in Britain have reached
the pinnacle of equality and they don’t need more human rights. Watching the opening
ceremony, I caught the sight of Shami Chakrabarti carrying the Olympics flag
with the likes of a frail, pushed-out legendary boxer Muhamamd Ali, Ban-ki
Moon, the United Nations secretary general and Doreen Lawrence, the mother of
Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager killed in 1993 by racists in a deprived
London area. I thought for a moment that
this is the best chance for the Liberty Director and known rights campaigner
to say something – anything – or make a point aimed at highlighting the
violation of the rights of her own fellow countrymen — ordinary, decent men
and women who sponsored these games but have been sidelined — for it would
have been the biggest worldwide audience she would ever get in her lifetime
but that was not to be. It looked that the left-wing celebrity had been
sucked in the bottomless pit of celebrity dazzle and glamour. Her
participation proved that the left has been overwhelmed by the big business.
For the left to sit on the plaudits that the so-called success of the opening
ceremony is accredited to the left-wing director Danny Boyle is not enough.
There is so much at stake here. During the Beijing
Olympics, the western media and the intellectual class went in overdrive to
trample upon China on its human rights records, highlighting how the Olympics
was built on the blood of the poor communities. That was a right position to
take although the element of China-hatred was dominant. But where is that
criticism when working class communities, surrounding the Olympic village,
are paying for the privileged. For tens of thousands of
East Londoners, who put up with dust, dirt and noise for 8 years of
construction in the run up to the Olympics, these games happened a few yard
from their homes but these games might as well have been happening in another
part of the world. Using school children from a local school to win Olympics
in 2005, the London Olympics organisers had promised these games will belong
to the local multi-cultural communities but the local people neither had the
capacity to buy tickets or tickets were sold out too early or blocked by the
corporate sponsors for their clients. The local Newham Council has told many
residents that they will be evicted from the council estates soon to sell the
high rise tower blocks to property developers. Julian Cheyne, a campaigner
who has spoken against the Olympics, has a personal experience of being
evicted from his home prior to the start of the games by the Newham Council.
He told The News on Sunday that International Olympics Committee’s (IOC)
requires the host countries to create an Olympic Park and other facilities.
This can be used as a justification for compulsory purchase of land in poor
areas and the removal of the people occupying the land, he said. “Compulsory purchase
allows land to be purchased at knock down prices and then sold on to new
richer owners. Stratford is extremely well connected with multiple railway
and bus connections. The Olympics resulted in the removal of almost 5000
‘dirty’ industrial jobs to be replaced, so it is hoped, by clean creative
type jobs. The follow on process is to expand this Olympic zone into
neighbouring areas and reshape East London.” The official London 2012
slogan “Inspire a generation” was disingenuous. The right-leaning
coalition government has introduced some of the harshest austerity squeezes
and games in the state school system, attended by pupils from low-income
backgrounds, are now non-existent. For the tiny minority of rich kids in
private elite schools (only 7 per cent), sports facilities are of world class
and it’s the students of these schools who won medals for Britain in
Beijing and now in London. Prime Minister David
Cameron has called for more competitiveness in school sports but he has no
idea what life is like for a working class kid in a tough state school. This
government of multi-millionaires actually scrapped a target for pupils to do
two hours of sports per week, effectively depriving millions of children from
taking part in sports. If they had their way, they would allocate funds for
those who were born in privilege and with medals in their mouths. The organisers paraded Mo
Farah, a Somali refugee and Muslim, as the new face of British nationalism
but a look at the history of racism and immigration in Britain will tell that
this is the biggest fallacy. For the majority he will remain the “other”
– “oh Mo, you are different from other Somalis, different from other
Muslims. You are untypical.” The question is will the one man’s success
usher into anything positive for tens of thousands of “others” who are
still aliens, foreigners, forever different? Now that the lavish
jamboree of international goodwill is over, what’s next? Campaigners,
opposition politicians and media needs to step up pressure on the government
to do something about the future of local children and youth, who are
unemployed in their thousands and have nothing better to do with their lives.
It’s the same people of youth who had risen against endless discrimination
and alienation only a year ago when England was hit by the worst urban riots
— claiming three British Pakistani martyrs, who died defending their
communities against the looters. Lest the world forgets, the
areas around Olympics were the flashpoints of the riots which exposed the
ugly face of Britain to the world after an un-armed Black youth Mark Dugga
was gunned down by the police. Dozens of Olympic spectacles put together and
the glamour faces projected for the world’s consumption will do nothing to
tackle the deep seated problems of unemployment and the alienation of the
youth. The establishment has failed to address the causes of those riots. The
London Olympics has coincided with the first anniversary of the riots and the
simmering tensions are there. The age of unrest is all around East London,
the pressure cooker may combust anytime. The writer is a London
correspondent for Geo television and Jang Group of Newspapers. He can be
contacted at Murtaza.shah@geo.tv
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