strike festival Have
your toffee and eat it too In
defence of imagination
strike When was the last time
anybody in the Punjab government, in the press or on TV referred to doctors
as messiahs? Aha! The last time the Young Doctor’s Association (YDA) went
on strike! In between nobody thinks much about the long hours and hard work
these young doctors put in or the conditions they work under or the money
they get paid. To understand what is going on it is important to realise
that the medical community is not a monolith and is really made up of
different groups with different practice patterns and obligations. Physicians that are
employed by the government of the Punjab are roughly divisible into four
distinct groups. The first are the ‘senior’ doctors that make up the
‘consultants’ in the teaching hospitals and the major tertiary and
secondary care hospitals. Most of them are already well established. More
importantly, many of them are in line for promotions to important positions
like principals and vice-chancellors or as chairmen and heads of their
departments. All of them are at the mercy of the Chief Minister (CM) of the
Punjab and the Health Department for their present ‘postings’ as well as
future promotions and, therefore, are inclined to ‘tow the official’
line. The second group is what
is what I will call the medical ‘gerontocracy’. These are the
‘senior’ medical officers that have spent decades working in the public
sector hospitals. They have, over the years, developed a symbiotic
relationship with their institutions, both in teaching hospitals as well as
the government hospitals in the peripheral areas. Some of them pay off the
medical bureaucracy to keep their positions intact and pursue either private
practices or non medical business activities full time. The third group is the
members of the ‘medical bureaucracy’ that run the public hospitals.
These physicians are also dependent on the Health Department for their
postings to ‘plum’ jobs and are appointed often for their political
subservience rather than merit. As far as I am concerned, the entire public
healthcare system in the Punjab is at present run by what can at best be
described as a ‘Sycophantocracy’ (If I may be allowed a neologism).
Frankly, this group is to blame for the medical crises that occur every time
the YDA has gone on strike. I will return to their pernicious role a bit
later. The fourth group is the
‘house physicians’. These are recent graduates that need to work for a
year in an ‘accredited’ hospital so they can fulfil the requirement of
obtaining full registration by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).
Interestingly, all medical graduates do not go through a house job. The
reason being that some women graduates that get married choose not to pursue
a career in medicine and some of the male graduates decide to pursue non
medical careers. But of those that do want to go on in medicine, many of
them support the YDA points of view. Concerning the YDA, most
of these young men and women are less than ten years out of medical college
and all have made a commitment to pursue a career in medicine and most of
them serve as medical officers and registrars or as medical trainees. These
are the people that really run our great public hospitals. They are all
‘high achievers’ who worked hard and did well throughout their
educational careers. They expect that if they continue to work hard and
pursue post graduate training they will be appropriately rewarded. Our
future medical leaders and teachers will come from this group of committed
professionals. For them a ‘service structure’ with a pay scale
commensurate with their education and work are the most important
requirement. Perhaps, the government should also pay them a large monthly
bonus for being messiahs. To explain the concept of
a service structure let us take the example of a young man who enters the
Pakistan Military Academy and after four years comes out as an army officer.
Over the next twenty five years he is assured regular promotions and
increases in pay until he becomes a Major or a Lt. Colonel. At that point if
he is ‘super-ceded’ he can retire with full benefits and can pursue
another career. Similarly, young men and women that are inducted into the
civil services expect regular promotions and an escalating pay grade to
relatively high levels during their careers. Unfortunately, young
doctors have no such ‘service structure’ available to them. And in spite
of repeated assurances by the present Punjab government, no attempt has been
made to develop a proper service structure either. Ad hoc pay increases are
not the answer. Frankly, unless the demands of these young doctors are met,
future strikes will happen. Worse, we will see more of the brightest of our
young doctors leave the country especially if the US relaxes its visa regime
after the passage of the recent healthcare bill that will greatly increase
the demand for foreign doctors over the next few years. Now about some public
misconceptions concerning this strike. First, there is the often repeated
mention of an ‘oath’ that doctors are supposed to have taken that
prevents them from going on strike. Perhaps all the erudite journalists and
members of the government that keep talking about it can provide the lay
public with a copy of this oath. I never took any oath when I graduated from
medical college and nor did most people that I know of. So it is time to
stop bringing up poor Hippocrates who has sort of been dead for quite a few
centuries. The next issue is of the
responsibility for patient’s problems due to the strike. Here the
sycophants running our hospitals are primarily responsible. First, they knew
about the impending strike and made no contingency plans. Second, they
provide bad advice to their political and bureaucratic masters that if the
doctors go on strike all that needs to be done is hire other doctors. Here
the obvious question is what were these ‘other’ doctors doing before
they are hired, nothing? And if so, how are they expected to step in and
take over some of the busiest emergency rooms and medical wards in the
country without any previous training. And finally, the political
bosses, including the CM, that are willing to accept such bad advice are
equally culpable. Here I want to iterate that the doctors on strike do share
blame for the problems that patients go through. But who will bear
responsibility for the grievous injuries to arrested doctors, the CM?
Musicians of
Middle Eastern origin fusing their music with other musical tradition was
the main feature of the World Music day celebrated by the Rafi Peer Theatre
Workshop and the Alliance Française at the Peeru’s Café. It was
refreshing to hear the sound of oud and daf, both mentioned so often but
heard so little. These instruments of
music, mentioned in our classical poetry, especially in ghazal and masnavi
are all of Persian or Arabic origin. There are often references to either
the oud, the Chung, the rubab, the Ney in the works of the famous poets. It
may be that these instruments were played in the courts or selected
gatherings but the references to sarangi, tabla, sitar, tanpura and pakhawaj
are sorely missing from major tradition in our Urdu/Persian poetry. Even the flowers, trees,
foliage, animals and birds mentioned are not indigenous but belong to the
area from where these forms originated and blossomed. It may be that the
idiom of classical poetry was derived and these were employed by our poets
as metaphors drawn from classical tradition rather than from their own
surroundings. Then in the last 60 odd
years the cultural interaction between Iran and the various Arabic
countries, Central Asia and Turkey has been so restricted that we hardly
know anything about their music or their musical instruments. The emphasis,
even while highlighting the importance of developing better ties with these
societies, does not rest on music, dance and theatre but on abstract notions
of brotherhood. After years one Iranian
group appears in Pakistan to perform and one gets to hear the intonation of
Iranian vocal music and see some of their instruments like oud, ney, tanbur,
santur, daf, tombak, tar, dotar, sehtar and kamancheh. It is difficult to recall
any major musician from an Arabic country performing in Pakistan with the
regalia usually associated with their prestigious forms. So it is a relief
when a troupe or musicians arrive in Pakistan claiming to play oud, ney or
rubab and it connects back to something that exists in the larger body of
our cultural being that we have lost touch with. When French musicians whose
origin lie in the Arabic countries come and play oud in Pakistan it is like
reconnecting to our past or our derived heritage though twice removed. Only in the RPT Festival,
musicians from all over the world have performed in Pakistan. Many Middle
Eastern musicians live in the western countries either because of problem of
censorship at home or for better opportunities for their art to flourish. It
can only be that these musicians are second generation, born of parents who
migrated for whatever reason. There has been a very
strong cultural connection between France and countries of North Africa like
Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya and even deeper traditional links with
the countries known as French-speaking ones in West Africa. This connection
somehow has survived, rather thrived and forms now the expression of French
speaking culture in the broader international context. It was delightful to hear
Abaji who played oud and then a mixture of oud and the acoustic guitar that
he has created himself, bouzouki and the flutes. He is an Armenian and
possibly has antecedents who roamed from place to place as singing
minstrels. He also played the dudak. The second number was by Mohamed
Abozekry, who became the youngest professor of the eastern lute, oud and
specialised in the instrument under the apprenticeship of Naseer Shamma
considered tobe the greatest player of oud and is of Iraqi origin. He with
Heejaz Quartet including Hogan on the guitar, Anne Laure on the percussion,
which included dub and the tabla performed a mixture of Arab, Spanish and
African music. Of late, there has been a
trend of fusing the various musical traditions together. The Rafi Peer
festivals have been a major venue for such a happening and, in programme
there was fusion between the various musicians with Chand Khan and Suraj
Khan, the sons of Hussain Buksh Gullo. It was a spontaneous act and the
various musicians discovered the commonalities between their musical styles
while performing. The evening was rounded off by a qawwali by the Mian Miri
qawwals. On World Music Day, the
purpose is to promote music in two ways. Amateur and professional musician
are encouraged to perform on the streets. The slogan Faites de la musique
(make music), a homophone for Fete de la Musique, is used and many free
concerts are organised, making all genres of music accessible to the public.
Once sanctioned by the official Fete de la Musique organisation in Paris,
all concerts are free to the public. It’s not required that musicians play
for free, though many do so. The day has become
important not all of a sudden but gradually as the media has picked it up as
a day to be acknowledged and celebrated. Fête de la Musique (World Music
Day) coincides with the summer solstice in France and has since spread over
a hundred countries or cities like Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain,
Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Israel, China, India, Lebanon,
Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Colombia and Venezuela to
name a few. New York celebrated its first festival in 2007, and recently
Iraqi Kurdistan in Sulaymaniyah city celebrated its first. Despite the tolerance
about the performance by amateurs in public areas after usual hours, the
noise restrictions apply, and can cause some establishments to be forbidden
to open and broadcast music out of their doors without prior authorisation.
In Pakistan the occasion is celebrated with a concert or two but has not
become a public event with the streets being filled with music and adoring
fans.
Parents and
teachers often complain that, even though good books and songs written in
Urdu for children have been around for several years, there is nothing
available in Urdu on the new media that can attract their little ones, at
least those with access to the internet. Those days are going away fast! If you want your children
to enjoy an animated ‘Aaloo mian Aaloo mian kahan gayay thay…Sabzi ki
tokri may so rahay thay’ rhyme, or ‘Chota sa Makora’ ala Incy Wincy
Spider, and many more, or stories such as ‘Moti Murghi’, ‘Chira Chiri
ki kahani’, ‘Mir Sultan aur jadoo ka jhoola’, etc. turn to
Toffeetv.com. This group has been creating online magic for children for the
last one year. Toffeetv.com,
incidentally, was born on the fourth of July 2011, and has been growing with
leaps and bounds…literally. It can now stand firmly on its feet and has a
huge appetite, asking for more, and more, and more. With a name like Toffee
TV, what else do you expect? And there is another reason to celebrate its
birthday…Toffee TV has already attracted a million viewers during its
short life! Let us meet the dynamic
young women behind this wonderful enterprise: Rabia Garib and Talea Zafar,
supported by Nikhat Zafar and Talha Ghafoor. Rabia, the IT expert, and Talea,
the digital graphics designer, were co-workers before setting up Toffee TV.
Nikhat helps with research, writing stories and also giving her voice to a
character in one of their forthcoming series, while Talha helps with their
website. Rabia has been working in
Internet Technology for over a decade now. Involved with television in the
past, she has worked for internet magazines, and is Co-founder and CEO,
Rasala Publications. She is also Editor-in-Chief of CIO Pakistan. CIO is
apparently the “world’s largest technology business leadership magazine
brand.” I used to see the unassuming Rabia standing behind her video
camera tripod, filming events quietly and unobtrusively. Talea Zafar is the other
bright and energetic face of Toffee TV. Although she has not had a formal
art education, she brings to life songs and stories for children with her
endearing illustrations and animations. “I more or less
self-trained for 2D animation since I was familiar with Vector graphics,”
she says. Vector graphics is the creation of digital images that place lines
and shapes in a given two-dimensional or three-dimensional space. Talea has
also mastered the Maya 3D animation software. This is a comprehensive,
creative feature for animation and modelling, also used for visual effects,
post-production, etc. “But,” she says, “it is not possible to use it
single-handedly, as Maya has some demanding requirements and an entire team
is needed to make use of its powerful tool-sets. “I use Flash and Toon
Boom, which has an animator-friendly set of features… ‘The Simpsons’
cartoon being just one example of using Toon Boom,” she smiles her dimpled
smile. ‘The Dimples’ is what I would like to name this duo, as both
Talea and Rabia have them, which, I am sure, play an important role in
endearing them to their young (and old) fans immediately. Both these single women
have had close interactions with children within their families. “I used
to sing songs, and tell stories to my nieces and nephews. My niece Alina
used to come to my office and sit in my lap, wanting to hear something from
me, and four years ago when I sang Kali kali Bakri (Ba Ba Black Sheep…) to
her, I began to think seriously about Urdu songs and stories for
children…” says Rabia about her inspiration for starting Toffeetv.com Initially Toffee TV was
only web-based, but after just two months of going live, Rabia and Talea
started to hold events for children at the T2f…that wonderful platform in
Karachi where ideas are born and shared, discussed and displayed. Sania Saeed, the celebrity
television and theatre artist is a regular story-teller at these events,
held on alternate Sundays. An accomplished actor, she is able to connect
beautifully with children of all ages, entertaining as well as educating
them at the same time. There are two other
volunteers besides Sania: They are architects Huzefa Ali and Hira Ilyas
Bawahab, also regular story-tellers, who use their theatre and miming skills
to good effect. I was invited to attend a
recent Toffee TV event. They were using one of my books for children that
day. While Sania read it out, Talea involved the children in a recycling
activity with plastic bags, as this particular story is based on the
devilish plastic bag and its killer antics. This gave me an opportunity to
witness, first-hand, the interest and the enthusiasm of the children, their
parents and grandparents, who had filled the room. Another brilliant
story-teller / performer, Fawad Khan, was also there that day to narrate the
age-old ‘Ali Baba Chalees Chor’ story. He dazzled everyone in the room
with his entertaining style and, despite the fact that it was a lengthy —
almost forty-minute — performance, the audience remained spellbound. This
also got me thinking about the wonderful, albeit hidden talent and potential
that is available, and Toffee TV could continue to discover or draw on such
persons to entertain children. Besides songs and stories
on Toffeetv.com, there are craft activities that the children can follow and
create themselves; a 13-year old ScienTwist called Hamza who experiments; a
soon-to-be-aired mini-series titled Angootha chhaap and family, of which one
can view the trailer, and much more. Our ‘magic duo’ also regularly
visits a Children’s Cancer Hospital located at Ayesha Manzil in Karachi,
where they take storybooks and toys for the children and help in spreading
the word that the hospital is looking for funds for a new building in
Korangi. “We are still in Beta
Mode,” says Rabia modestly; meaning Toffee TV is still processing,
testing, experimenting, debugging. Alpha, Beta, or Gamma…there should be
three cheers for Toffee TV and its magic team! caption Rabia Garib plays the
guitar and sings too while Talea Zafar hums along.
In defence of
imagination In the oppressive
heat of Lahore, with the temperature rising up to 46 degree Celsius, an
artist planning to paint a landscape at midday might find it impossible to
stand for a few hours under the scorching sun. Alternatively, he could stay
in his air-conditioned vehicle and paint the landscape by looking through
the window. But will this image, with the artist not having experienced the
heat of the site, represent the essence of the scene? It may not, since
something peculiar and honest is expected from the artist. Landscape
painting is differentiated from photography because the picture through a
camera is considered a meta-human documentation of an object/scene even
though there is a man behind the lens who clicks the button whereas painting
of the same spot is regarded a personal interpretation of reality. The
artist also uses a few props, such as brush, canvas, paint and mixing oils
but, compared to camera, these are perceived as mere tools and not
technology. Historically, the painters
were supposed to recreate not only their optical response but a sensation of
the atmosphere and an emotional reaction in their chosen subject —
landscape. An example is Vincent van Gogh who roamed the fields of Arles in
the South of France under a scorching sun and sought to capture that
blinding light and heat in his canvases, using cadmium yellow mostly. There is another anecdote
recounted by John Berger in his essay on J. M. W. Turner. According to
Berger, the English painter of sea and storm, in one of his train journeys
from France to Britain, put his head out of the window in the moving
carriage so he could feel the strong wind, pouring rain and heavy blizzard.
One may not believe in the story but, looking at his paintings in which all
details merge into swirls of winds, rain, snow and fire, one understands the
connection between his act and his canvases. In that sense, a painting
made in car would be different from the one which is executed outside,
exposed to the heat and the sun, as the artist is not only seeing his
subject but experiencing the pleasure (or pain) of being in that
surrounding. Thus his creation is not like a camera snapshot but a direct
representation of the place. This version is normally accepted when we
admire a work of art, because we know the artist has not only looked at his
subject but added his ‘feelings’ in the process of making it. If analysed, this is a
romantic notion of art held dear and cherished by us. In fact, what we
appreciate is the element of honesty in the act of art making. If we see a
landscape, we presume the artist has spent hours at the exact location, an
ordeal that he must communicate through his canvas. We are not pleased by
his visual rendering alone; we expect something more — his personal
experience of that place which we can identify and connect with. That is
why, in our art circles, a painter working at the actual spot for his
landscape more valued than the one who prefers a photograph as a reference. Actually this kind of
attitude considers art to be a true occurrence rather than an intellectual
pursuit. If one believes in art being a conceptual endeavour, then it is
more important what an artist presents than his process. Thus his end
product becomes more significant compared to his sources and procedures. One
can extend this example beyond landscape painting to the practice of artists
who portray subjects and people they have not experienced, encountered or do
not have the capacity to do so. For instance, a male artist can support the
cause of feminism in his wok or an artist living in Iran may decide to take
up the subject of Apartheid without ever being in South Africa or a painter
living in a tropical country may fancy depicting a snowfall. Not only visual artists
but writers too enjoy the privilege to imagine situations and characters
they haven’t experienced or met; like a middle aged author may write the
story of a pregnant unloved woman in her early twenties; or a writer living
in India may choose to compose his novel based on the life story of a hermit
from Hungary; or a female novelist can create her fiction on the inner self
of a cat, or may be the ‘sentiments’ of a non-living entity, such as a
car, pen, or a belt (like the short story Tape Measure by Nadine Gordimer). All these or imagined
narratives are utilised by the writers because, for them, the origin is not
important nor is the honesty of their experience essential. Their creation
is more crucial — the story, which makes a reader believe in the truth of
what is told. In that sense, the artists are not obliged to follow their
personal history or purity of their encounters because what is necessary is
their interpretation of the subject, regardless of the fact that they have
seen it through their own eyes or received it from a distant source. Or if
their work deals with the tradition of a society, it hardly matters if they
belong to the same culture (the link which, in majority’s opinion, gives
the license to use it), because they can negate their familiar surroundings
and concentrate on something that is not their immediate experience. Once our artist learns to
enjoy and our audience starts to respect this freedom, perhaps our art will
come out of its straightjacket of locality or the obligations of indigenous
culture. One may recognise that just as it is difficult to stand in the
devastating heat for painting a landscape, in the same manner, it is
demeaning to be restricted to a single location or vernacular characters in
one’s creative practice. The artist ought to be free to employ his
imagination in order to amend, edit and alter reality and create a truth
that is beyond — and better and lasting than — the mere experience of
mortals. caption
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