EDITOR’S NOTE: Toronto playwright (and our Centre for Social Innovation neighbour) Darren O’Donnell is in Pakistan working on a production of Diplomatic Immunities, his play that premeired last year here in Toronto. Research for the production requires being out in public and interacting with folks on the street. He and his company are writing about the experience on their blog — but we asked him to give us a quick take on what life is like on the streets of Pakistan under emergency rule.
I’m in Pakistan developing and presenting Mammalian Diving Reflex’s Diplomatic Immunities in the World Performing Arts Festival. Before the company left Canada there was a lot of discussion about our safety and we agreed that if the festival was canceled we would skip it and head straight to Mumbai to research an upcoming project. The festival was not canceled, despite emergency rule, and here we are.
Back home, the media coverage was making us all very nervous — it was easy to imagine that chaos dominated the country. And while, to my eyes, the streets do seem filled with chaos, it’s mostly the way people drive and little else. Our director of video, Faisal Anwar, a native of Lahore, had come a week before the rest of us and complained in an email about the West’s coverage of the events: “I will try not to ever read any news anywhere. Now I realized what’s actually the purpose of today’s “newsâ€. There are no lies, no truth, no sharing — it just works for a bigger agenda. People and the name of Pakistan only suffer.â€
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There has no doubt been violence here, the detention of thousands of lawyers and activist is viewed as a bad move on Musharaff’s part by everyone we’ve talked to, but things are as calm as they were when we were here last year. I don’t see much of an overt military presence and we — with our group of 5 Canadians and 5 Pakistanis constantly drawing a crowd — has been able to do our research undisturbed. We don’t relish the idea of arguing the difference between Art and Media but, so far, we’re good and we haven’t had to.
There’s an ambivalence here to all the recent action. Musharaff’s closing of GEO, the all-news channel, has been characterized as a good thing by Sadaan Peerzada, dirctor of the World Performing Arts Festival, who claims that the station was too sensational, always looking at the negative and always willing to sell out. In what seems like a bizarre ideological contradiction to me, Peerzada tells me that GEO both defends the “terrorists†of the Red Mosque against the action of the government (one of GEO’s fatal moves) as well as sells airtime to the American’s who broadcast two hours of propaganda a day. If you’re looking to understand events here along a Pro-Jihad vs. Pro-American axis, you’ll end up confused.
Our collaborators, Faisal Anwar and Wajeehah Sabahat, support Peezada’s postion, telling me that they and their families are happy that GEO has been shut down, that the station was spreading pessimism in a country that’s pessimistic enough.
Peerzada surprises me when he tells me that Musharaff has been the best thing to happen to the arts, that the festival has grown during his reign, they receive a lot more funding and that during Bhutto’s last tenure, they were constantly under threat of being shut down. Why, I asked, did he think this was? I expected an answer about Musharaff understanding the power of culture, and the necessity to have that sector on your side if you’re going to try to rule militarily, but Peerzade replied: ‘Because Musharaff likes music.â€
— Darren O’Donnell
5 comments
their emergency blog reads too much like a bunch of tourists trying not to be a bunch of tourists. this is a nice post though. the media hype is a no brainer, when we had sars here overseas friends were phoning and emailing asking if we were all wearing masks etc. and shocked and worried that we weren’t, that we were still riding the jam-packed subway every day with no protection. it was interesting then to read the news websites of other countries to see how our situation was being portrayed.
as for the pro-jihad vs pro-american axis, it’s presumptuous to assume that we wouldn’t get confused when trying to figure it out. i like to think that even developing countries who appear to be under the control of the states, have their own agency and in a very carefully crafted balancing act, can appease all sides while still quietly trying really hard to act for the benefit of their subjects.
Nice work putting this on the wire. It’s interesting to hear some more perspectives on this.
I do have to take issue with the “normalcy” that the authors comment on, or even the positive effects of what Musharraf has done.
Certainly, the situation is not as noticeably unstable as our coverage might suggest, but don’t forget that Musharraf has suspended the constitution.
A peaceful dictatorship is still nonetheless a dictatorship.
I don’t agree with your definition of dictatorship, Dave. I’m going to suggest, for the sake of argument, that we don’t have a democracy here in Canada, our system is in so many ways almost a dictatorship, but not overtly, which is a lot more dangerous. When we don’t agree with the government, nobody riots, there are no public protests, there is no rule by the citizens. We’re not France. It is argued that true democracy has to have citizen antagonism. But here everyone is complacent and apathetic. Not a democracy. The gov’t makes decisions without the consent of most of us, that’s not a democracy. We’re too poor and overworked to have time to go out in the streets. How different is that from Pakistan? At least they riot, they protest.
Pakistan,
Every time have a general election,
They elect a general.
that’s a funny joke, Himy.
Hey JV, were sort of tourists but sort of not. We’re working here, not sight-seeing. but since we’re from out of town, out of culture, for that matter, it’s going to sound like we’re tourists. perhaps cultural tourists. but what’s wrong with tourists?
the media hype may have been a no brainer but when you’ve got the canadian government, all your friends and your mother freaking out, it doesn’t seem so obvious.
I wasn’t presuming anything on your part, i said “if you’re looking to understand it along those lines…” “If”, yo, “If.”
i don’t know if things are balanced here and who exactly is being appeased. very confusing.
and, dave, the normalcy i’m talking about is just in contrast to what i saw here last year, when the place was not under emergency rule. for me, it looks the same. but i’m not a journalist or a lawyer.
a dictatorship maybe a dictatorship but JV makes good points. and like Peerzada said, he likes Musharaff bettter than some of the democratically elected folks.