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Pakistan’s Freedom Struggle: The Promised Dawn is Yet to Come

یہ داغ داغ اجالا یہ شب گزیدہ سحر

وہ انتظار تھا جس کا یہ وہ سحر تو نہیں

یہ وہ سحر تو نہیں جس کی آرزو لے کر

چلے تھے یار کے مل جاۓ گی کہیں نہ کہیں

On a cold winter night, despite security threats, student activists gather on the streets of Lahore to protest yet another abduction of a fellow Baloch activist. He was young, ambitious, zealous. He was fighting for the rights of his people, for human rights. Like many others, he was picked up by unidentifiable men. Like many others, they did not know if he would return. So they did what they could. They demanded from the state responsible for protecting these rights.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz had warned us decades ago of the disillusionment of 1947’s ‘triumph’. Pakistanis had acquired some freedom but there was still a long way to go.

Almost seventy years later, we still have a long way to go.

For Pakistan, one of the largest obstacles to freedom are enforced disappearances, with no external force posing this threat and perpetrators and victims both belonging to the country.

Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) suffer prominently in this terrorizing system of repression. Witnesses of these disappearances described them as often occurring in the night when unknown men enter target homes and pick up family members they deem problematic. Many cases have even occurred in broad daylight. Parents have lost their young children, siblings have been estranged and wives left widowed. The loved ones left behind in the wake of this terror spend their remaining lives chasing an unattainable justice; from the police station to the Supreme Court, they knock every door for some reprieve. Stranger phone calls sometimes give them dishonest reassurances of their loved ones returning. The false hope worsens the anguish of the families, especially when their beloved turns up in a dumped bag, or as part of a mass grave or simply never turns up. Those who do return, as one Baloch said, “don’t remember who they are, much less their families. The torture they endure erase their identities”.

Disappearances originated with the Balochs’ political movements after 1971, which demanded political, economic and social rights. Rich in natural resources that provide for Pakistan and beyond, Balochistan is the largest and least developed province of the country. Poor living conditions prevail, with 46.6 percent of Baloch households having no electricity and 59% of Balochistan without natural gas, its main energy source. Economic exploitation and little provincial autonomy aggravate the situation. Corruption in development projects add to Baloch grievances. Continued ignorance and suppression of legitimate demands has led to unrest and even outright insurgencies in the past four decades.

The Pashtuns have a similar story. Many have been picked up and killed as part of a policy to curb the region’s militant threat, such as that from the Taliban. Naqibullah Mehsub was one such Pakhtoon who lost his life in the cross-fire of Karachi Authorities’ militancy resistance. The widely publicized case led to the “Pashtun Long March” where thousands protested for the protection of ethnic rights. The march soon grew into a nation-wide protest called the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement. Throngs of people, united by their collective pain, came out on the streets to demands reparations from the state.

Enforced disappearances are no longer a Baloch or Pakhtun problem, they are a Pakistani problem, with people now being abducted from all provinces. The terrifying reality of the ‘others’ is now our reality. That there is something beyond provincial politics here is evident when protesters are made up in large numbers of the more vulnerable groups in society; women, children and senior citizens. What drives these people out of the safety of their homes and into the streets is the reality of their lives – that their homes are no longer safe. They know the terror has reached there. How long will it take us to realize that it has reached our homes, too?

The situation is aggravated by the mass media’s restricted reporting of the daily repression these people face. State censorship is largely but not solely responsible. Ejaz Haider, a prominent Pakistani journaslist, describes the constraints local journalists face in this case, “if you are not taking sides, reporting in certain cases can be very tricky. Take, for example, Balochistan. Journalists there have to deal with the state’s sensitivities as well as threats from Baloch terror groups. A half-hour conversation in the Quetta press club with reporters brings this reality into sharp salience. It was the same for journalists in the erstwhile tribal areas when most of those administrative units were controlled partially or fully by Taliban groups. Traversing such a landscape is like walking through a minefield”.

There are indeed violent actors amidst the protesters but they constitute a fragment of the larger movement. Meanwhile, the state’s oppressive response to these violent elements is indiscriminate. The human tragedy that occurs as a consequence is now part of everyday life in Balochistan and KPK. One year later, Mehsud’s murderer, Police Superintendent Rao Anwar, still roams free. Thousands of Pashtuns are still gathering on the streets in protest. If the state continues to respond militarily to a political problem, we may see costs as grave as those incurred in 1971.

What could we possibly do about this? Baloch and Pakhtun student activists are not very different from us. They engage in activities and share interests similar to ours. However, they described life as that of constant threat because of their struggle for the protection of Pakistanis. According to them, the least we can do is to become informed and help make others aware. Information is available despite the limitations. Speaking with activists and using the internet for reliable sources are ways to educate ourselves. Human Rights Watch devised a report in 2011. Sources cited in this article are also a good starting point. We must begin speaking up. We must prove false that “in Pakistan, preservation counts for more than compassion”.

Millions envisioned the dawn of a free Pakistan in 1947. Perhaps with our collective struggle we will one day witness that promised dawn.

ابھی چراغ سر رہ کو کچھ خبر ہی نہیں

ابھی گرانیٔ شب میں کمی نہیں آئی

نجات دیدہ و دل کی گھڑی نہیں آئی

 چلے چلو کہ وہ منزل ابھی نہیں آئی

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Interview of Taha Iqbal and Talha Wani

  1. When did you start debating? Is it something that you have always wanted to do as a child?

Taha Iqbal: I started debating when I was in first year of O’levels. I got into it because of my mother and my teachers pushing me to do the activity. Once I started, I actually enjoyed it and hence kept on going. I did various forms of public speaking including declamations, Model UN and parliamentary style debating and ended up preferring the latter because I thought it was more challenging.

Talha Wani: I always enjoyed public speaking, but I did not have a particular penchant for parliamentary debates until my O levels.

  1. How did you prepare for the championship?

Taha Iqbal: DRUMS  conducts biweekly English and Urdu debating camps. The primary form of practice was sparring against other speakers of LUMS. We’re privileged to have not only the highest number of speakers but also some of the best speakers in our country at our English debating camp in particular. This made finding people to practice against easier and also ensured that we faced quality opposition and had good judges. Apart from that, I watch videos of debates and debate tutorials done by some of the best in the world. Reading is also an essential part of practice because motions tend to be specific and require some degree of knowledge about current affairs. My partner and I also spoke various tournaments throughout the calendar year which also exposed us to compete against other domestic teams (we only spoke once together though).

Talha Wani: Sadly, we were a little short of practice. I spoke at one local tournament this semester in Kinnaird College, which I ended up winning. We did, however, do our fair share of individual research, mostly through our routine of following the news well and reading analytical pieces when we could find them.

  1. What have you learned about yourself while being on this journey?

Talha Iqbal: The biggest lesson one learns when going to international tournaments is humility. There needs to be a recognition of just how good teams and judges from around the world are and how difficult it is to compete against them. There are structural barriers which prevent Pakistani and other ‘English as a Second Language’ and ‘English as a Foreign Language’ teams from doing extremely well. While you have to realize that these barriers exist, you also have to simultaneously take the opportunity to learn as much as you can along the way and maintain morale.

Talha Wani: I don’t think I have learned much. The only difference in my self-perception has been humbling; a consequence of the caliber of speakers I witnessed.

  1. Is there any world debater or speaker that you look up to as an inspiration?

Taha Iqbal: That is a long list. If you ever want to see how to give an emotionally powerful and logically cogent speech then you need not look beyond Bo Seo (Harvard), Victor Finkel (Monash), Shengwu Li (Oxford) and Will Jones (Oxford). There are many many more but just in terms of Pakistani speakers, Muhammad Asadullah Khan (Cambridge) and our very own Taha Kaihan Masud also continue to inspire me. Both of these speakers have found international success (Asad more than Masud) but continue to be humble (Masud more than Asad). Having known them personally, I am not only in awe of how good they are as speakers but equally of how good they are as human beings. I can only wish to achieve something comparable in both regards.

Talha Wani: I sometimes watch the Prime Minister’s speech of the 2016 World Universities final delivered by Bo Seo as the “model speech”. I guess he, and others like him, are the kind of speakers I want to be like.

 

  1. How has LUMS helped you in achieving your success today?

 Taha Iqbal: I came to LUMS from SISA. It’s not a well-known school but it gave me the opportunity to debate. I went to countless tournaments and learned a lot, but did not encounter a lot of success. At LUMS, I was suddenly thrown into a camp where I was up against some of the best in the country. In my freshmen year, I learned a lot from speakers like Hafiz Usman, Nawal Tauqeer and Humza Jami who were at that point in time the most successful Pakistani team to have ever competed in the United Asians Debating Championship. The shift in the quality of camp and adjudication meant that I was now speaking with, against and learning from people whom I wouldn’t have dreamed of interacting with had I been at any other place. The fact that DRUMS gets international adjudicators to adjudicate at the LUMS IV and sends teams to international tournaments obviously also increases exposure and therefore the likelihood of us getting better.

Talha Wani: It’s given me both mentors, in many of the speakers who came before me, as well as exposure in the form of my 2 Worlds and 1 Asians experience. I don’t think I’d be as good a speaker if I had not gotten either.

 

  1. What do you think needs to be improved here at LUMS in order to produce high achievers like you?

Taha Iqbal: Funding; the lack of financial resources locks out certain people who are just as good or perhaps better. I could only be what I am today because I was privileged enough to come from a family that can pay for tickets, transport, visa fees, and registration fees. While DRUMS tries its best to subsidize people who do not enjoy the same privilege that I do, there is still a huge resource gap. If we could get more money, there would be a lot more successful speakers.

Talha Wani: I don’t consider myself a high-achiever. To produce true high achievers, I think we need to visit even more international Major’s and be exposed to higher quality debating. Of course, financial and logistical restrictions can complicate this, but I hope that is less the case in the future

 

  1. How do you plan to use this achievement of yours for your future career?

Taha Iqbal: I don’t. It obviously helps that I have experience in public speaking. I can do tasks like interviews and presentations with relative ease but I really don’t see the activity in that way. While I admit that there are advantages, like thinking on your feet, speaking in front of people, managing time and knowing a lot of stuff, to me it doesn’t matter what the activity gives me, it’s much more about it just being enjoyable.

Talha Wani: I’m an Economics major, I don’t think the achievement counts much towards my career, as opposed to the skills I gain e.g. communication and logic construction/deconstruction.

  1. Any message for those looking up to you as an inspiration?

Taha Iqbal: Don’t. There are loads of people better than me that you can learn more from.

Talha Wani: Don’t. Find better inspirations.

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 To the years in LUMS

I came as a toddler: having just learned to crawl
But I planned to fly here
Each step I took was fragile and filled with hope
The building loomed over me and seemed mightier than ever
In my innocence all I could see were the wings that I wanted
I was unaware of the stones that I would fall onto
That would scrape my wings and tear them apart
That would bleed even after four years

I came as a teenager: rebellious in my dreams
I had the energy to speak the loudest, to put in all that I had
I longed for inspiration as I ventured deeper in my journey
I knew I had to make most of this time
So I compromised on sleep, on health and on life
I gave all that in hopes that this would fill me up
This would teach me to fly
This would make something out of me

I came as an adult: mature in my wants
This was the year where life planned to teach me the worst it could
Where the true colors of friends are seen
Where loneliness is tackled
Where every moment is the hardest to get through
Where after every fall, I would dust myself and try again
As I squeezed the last bit of energy in me

I came as old: weak and tired to my bones
I sat and gathered the few that I had left in my life
I wore different colors and danced in the rain
I laughed till tears rolled down my cheeks
I painted my room till the white of previous years had disappeared
I sat alone till the loneliness had vanished
I grew the wings when I least expected to
I had become much more than what I had expected to

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To Karachi, with Love

I often wonder, can you fall in love with a city the way you fall in love with a person? Because I think I have. Exploring a city’s lanes and secluded corners, like you would of a lover as you would lay with them, on sunny afternoons, etching new words upon their skin with your fingers. You would stare your lover, noticing all their quirks and building fantasies around them. Imaging the winters and the summers, and the autumns, while lying down next to them upon the grass during spring. You would talk to it, like you tell all your secrets to your lover and designate a few hours just to them, as if they belong to no one except you. You feel an inexplicable safety in knowing that this is the only city that would hold you and your secrets safe in its soul and would never reveal them to anyone, thus forging a bond that could never be breached by anyone else no matter what.

I struggle every time I plan to write about Karachi. It is so oxymoronic, so juxtaposing; like it infuriates and amazes at the same time. It continues to blow my mind with its mesmerising sights. I cannot help but stand on different vantage points and just continue gracing my eyes with its architectural excellence realizing how this structure along with the others around, have seen several instances of love, hate, naivety, success and failure between people of all ages. Its streets always lead me to a world crazier than the one I have come from, and one can never know what adventure awaits them in the moments to come. You just carelessly walk along the streets knowing that there is a world stranger than the one outside it – a world where anything can happen and that anything has the capacity of increasing the value of your life exponentially.

Out of all the metaphors I could use on you, I choose a tortured one. I want to call you a neglected mother, who openheartedly welcomes her children regardless of who they are as people or what they do. Every day you have millions of people coming in to you, learning how to survive and getting a bit closer to their dreams while growing up a little in the process. Some mover further away, some choose to stay, but you stand where you are – welcoming everyone with open arms even though the space keeps getting smaller and your buses may accommodate three passengers per seat. Karachi, I hate to admit but you are on the verge of dying, but there is value in your dying breath. The recording of each breath is worthy and hopeful and not opportunistic at all. I surely know that you will rise against all your challenges and will dance to the beat of your own drum because that is how it has always been, mad and crazy. And for someone like me, yours is the only understandable madness. The only chaos I can love unfathomably.

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The Lucifer Effect: Book Review

Introduction:

Mankind, in every epoch, has always had a penchant for the macabre and the evil. Whether it be pillaging of castles, imperialistic ventures of colonization or wiping out enrollments; there is no end to the creative destruction that man can wreck if left to his own devices. Among the plethora of literature on various heinous acts that have been perpetrated, the work of Phillip Zimbardo stands unrivalled because as opposed to just delineating acts of evil, Zimbardo answers a deceptively simple question; ‘Understanding how good people turn evil.’ In his critically acclaimed book, ‘The Lucifer Effect’, Zimbardo chronicles the events of his infamous ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’ and quantifies the psychological factors which push one to traverse into the ambit of acts which are deemed as profane. The insight provided by Zimbardo, while stomach-churning, is of monumental importance because it not only allows one to map the effect that one’s surrounding has on one’s sense of identity, it also provides falsifiable and scientific explanations as to why evil exists ubiquitously in today’s morally degenerate world.

Overview:

Before delving further into an analysis of Zimbardo’s book, the exigence of the books needs to be understood. In 1970, Zimbardo conducted his infamous, and failed, Stanford Prison experiment in which he simulated a prison in the basement of the psychology building in Stanford with the hopes of investigating the various dispositional, situational and systemic factors which contribute towards, what Zimbardo calls, “deindiviudation.”(Zimbardo 21) The book draws on the findings of the experiment in 1970 and tries to reconcile the inhumane behavior of correctional officers in the notorious Abu Gharaib prison in Iraq during the regime of Sadam Hussein.

Before Zimbardo begins to chronicle the events of the experiment itself, he provides the reader with a very important caveat: the psychological factors which are conducive towards the prevalence of evil instincts within an individual. Zimbardo draws the dichotomy between the evil as being “essentialized” (Zimbardo 6), meaning it is innate in some others and absent in others, and evil being an “incrementalist” feature (Zimbardo 7) which means that every individual, given the right stimuli, is capable of perpetrator evil acts. Zimbardo further buttresses his arguments on various approaches to evil by explaining who simultaneously certain “dispositional, situational and systemic” (Zimbardo 7) factors also contribute to people committing acts of evil. Penultimately, he then addresses the element of power system and their top-down dominance and how authoritarian regimes are more often than naught characterized by heinous because of how easy It is for evil to permeate into the landscape when one person or entity wields absolute power. He then goes on to provide instances outrageously evils acts by providing examples such as the rape of the people of Rwanda in the spring of 1994 and the rape of the people of Nanking, China, in 1937 as example. A salient feature of Zimbardo’s work which increases the efficacy of his arguments is how Zimbardo furnishes each psychological viewpoint with examples as aforementioned. Having established the necessary psychological foundation surrounding the independent variable which he looks to investigate, Zimbardo delves directly into the experiment and begins arresting the volunteers in collaboration with the police department of Palo Alto on a Sunday morning; the arrests are made to look as legitimate as possible in lieu of the real world likeness created by the police officers as they recite the Miranda rights of the prisoners, the filming of the entire arrest and official booking and registration of the prisoners in the Palo Alto police station. As the guards and prisoners assume their roles, the slow process of deindividuation and dehumanization begins. While the day starts off with mild instances of humiliation such as the presence of a “locked chain” ( Zimbardo 40) around the ankles of prisoners, the prohibition of wearing undergarments and referring to prisoners as their registration numbers the abuse slowly becomes more inhumane due to arbitrary abuses of power being conducted by guards such as conducting prisoner counts at 2 AM in the morning and further penalizing the prisoners by having to repeat these counts in a mind-numbingly monotonous manner if the guards wanted the counts to be “sweet” or to be sung by the prisoners ( Zimbardo  49). The prisoners are further forced to refer to the guards not by their names but as “Mr. Correctional Officer” (Zimbardo 51) which further accelerates the process of the loss of identity. What’s important to appreciate at this point in time is that Zimbardo is recording all the proceedings in real-time from a control room and it’s this covert surveillance by Zimbardo which truly enlightens the reader as to the extent to which the guards and prisoners begin to internalize their roles. Further, Zimbardo provides the insights of the guards and prisoners alongside stating the happenings of each day; this Is very useful because statements such as that of prisoner 7258 stating how “as the day goes on, I wish I was a guard” (Zimbardo 51)  helps the reader keep track of the timeline of the deindividuation of the volunteers. Sunday is an eventful day as towards the end, the first signs of rebellion can be seen as prisoner 2093 violates the time constraints he is given for going to the lavatory; the wheels of anonymity have been set in motion, but the process is being hampered as old identities clash against the new, engendered ones.

Monday morning starts off with another prisoner count being conducted by the guard but something very peculiar occurs; for the first time, the guards threaten to use violence against non-cooperative prisoners as the guard Ceros “smacks his club against his open palm, making the wap wap sound of restrained aggression.”(Zimbardo 57) Further, the abuse of power starts to become even more arbitrary as prisoners are forced to shout that it’s a “wonderful day.” (Zimbardo 58) Due to the failure of prisoner 8612 to meet the standard set by the guards as far as making his bed is concerned, he is thrown into the “hole” (Zimbardo 59); an improvised simulation of solitary confinement. Rebellion stars brewing as prisoners starts responding to the senseless abuse of guard power such as dragging the blankets of the inmates through pins but slowly, the prisoners start assuming a rather mellowed and submissive stance whereas the guards assert their dominance. While there is also an escape attempt by prisoner 5704, the effort fizzles out resulting in a penultimate frenzy of idiosyncratic counts being conducted by the guards eventually leading to prisoner 8612 breaking down and being removed from the experiment. An important fact to be cognizant of at this point in time is that 8612 had earlier asserted how this entire ordeal Is a “simulated experiment,” And its “no prison.” (Zimbardo 61) Within just one day, the roles have been deeply engrained that the loss of identity and distress can be physically witnessed in the prisoners. The next few chapters of the book further outline the extent of deindividuation. On Tuesday, prisoners are visited by their parents, siblings and spouses and while one would expect the prisoners to cry out in agony to their loved ones, many reassure their families that they are being taken care of and are happy;  prisoner 819, a very frequent member of solitary confinement, comments when asked by his brother if he wants to get out, “I can’t be out of here, I am in this wonderful place.” (Zimbardo 95) Next, one has to appreciate the oversight that Zimbardo shows while conducting the experiment; He ensures that the prisoners are visited by a priest on Wednesday as a means to not psychologically evaluate the prisoners and quell some of their grievances, but also to ensure that the most authentic prison environment is present in order for the dispositional factors to run their course. By the same token, Zimbardo then institutes a “Parole Board” (Zimbardo 100) whose sole purpose is to give the “semblance of democracy in this authoritarian setting.” (Zimbardo 90) The Parole board listen to the arguments made by each prisoner which are penultimately buttressed by the testimonies of the guard before the parole board finally reviews the cases. Again, the sheer breadth of experience of Zimbardo as a proficient experimenter is seen because having the necessary vision and creativity to institute a parole board is something which very few researchers can depict through their work. The parole board meets the plaintive pleas of the prisoners with utter indifference, since it’s all part of an experiment, and readers face a very spine-chilling reality; the prisoners are completely immersed within their new identities. The parole board asks the prisoners if they will be willing to forfeit their fee for being paroled right at that instant and 3 out of 4 men answered in the affirmative. Behind the veneer of the obvious, this statistic is proof of the strong dispositional factors at play because the idea of giving up the pay signals that the prisoners consider the remuneration less important their freedom; however, what’s surprising is that despite no longer having any purpose to continue to be part of the experiment, ‘ each prisoner passively submitted to the system, holding out his hands to be handcuffed…’ before the guards took them away. Similarly, as Zimbardo reflects in his notes, none of the prisoner says, ‘since I do not want your money, I am free to quit this experiment and demand to be released now.’ The malleability of identities is seen through this example. Thursday marks a grim day because the guards resort to sexually degrading punishments. Again, what’s important to note is how the chronology which Zimbardo provides us with helps one to follow the progression of arbitrariness and loss of identity within the prisoners and the guards; the transition from minimalistic punishments such as prisoner counts to extreme forms of punishment such as enacting  sexual scenarios is perhaps the most appropriate yardstick with which the reader can follow the slow degeneration of initial identities and the permeation of evil. Friday marks the last day of the experiment as the signs of distress reach an alarming pedestal. Zimbardo doesn’t just provide a summary of the debriefing of the prisoners and attempts to counter act the deindividuation, he also provides insight into questions such as “why the prisoners failed to request legal advice.” (Zimbardo 178)  Moreover, Zimbardo provides his own reflection In this chapter; the fact that Zimbardo admits that “I was overcome by the aphrodisiac of positive power…” (Zimbardo 179) after having set the prisoners free goes to show that the prison setup had not just affected the guards and the prisoners, but also the researcher itself; this is a further testimony to the fervor of situational forces and their roles in helping people cascade into evil. This aforementioned fervor is further made obvious through the reflections of the prisoners and powerful statements such as those by prisoners 5486 and 8612 stating, “the most apparent thing that I noticed was how most of the people in this study derive their sense of identity and well-being from their imediate surroundings…” and “it was the part, the psychological part that was the worst.” (Zimbardo 186) In the rest of the chapters, the defining feature of this books comes into the spotlight; The psychological caveats and insights into dynamics of the various off-shoots of the experiment. Zimbardo enlightens the readers with the “alchemy of character transformations” (Zimbardo 195) and breaks down how the transformations map onto the theory of “learned helplessness” (Zimbardo 196) by Martin Seligman. Another appeal to ethos put forth by Zimbardo is how he relates this theory and previously mentioned dispositional forces with the famous story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; this allows the audience to understand a rather complex psychological concept easily in lieu of Zimbardo’s prowess of diluting complexities while still maintaining their essence. Another defining characteristic of this book is the candid tone which Zimbardo adopts; while discussing the ethics of the experiment in chapter 11, Zimbardo openly admits that the experiment was blurring lines between ethical and non-ethical however he adds another dynamic to this debate on the ethicality of the experiment by first discerning between “absolute ethics” (Zimbardo 233) and “relative ethics.” (Zimbardo 235) Chapter 12 of the book sees Zimbardo investigating social dynamics such as “power, conformity and obedience.” (Zimbardo 258) He further goes onto show how these dynamics run their course by citing infamous examples such as the racial cleansing conducted by Nazis, suicide bombers obliterating civilians and school shooters hunting children indiscriminately. He adds another academic layer of credibility to his explanation by quoting the Milgram Experiment within which the volunteers knowingly administered fatal shocks to random people because they were part of centralized and hierarchical power structure. Finally, Zimbardo ties in this entire discussion on the psychology of evil by exporting his findings from the SPE and laying them onto the tortures at Abu Ghraib. In a very specific manner, Zimbardo breaks down the actions of the infamous abusers such as ‘Chip’ Frederick and Charles Graner. The prowess of Zimbardo is seen in this chapter as he relates the behaviors of these guards to the behaviors of the guards in the simulated SPE in 1970; this allows the reader to truly understand how and why the abusers conducted such heinous acts.

Drawbacks:

The first set of drawbacks of this book are in fact drawbacks of the SPE itself. Zimbardo knowingly let abuses be carried under his supervision while the initial agreement which was signed with the students clearly stipulated that basic amenities such as protection against violence and proper hygiene shall be provided. Second, Dr. Peter Gray of ‘Psychology Today’ makes the very valid point that the America of 1973 was crippled by innumerable instances of police brutality and prison riots. For a psychology professor, at Stanford, who was looking to observe the happenings in a simulated prison, how could Zimbardo be so lax in not putting up robust safety mechanisms for the prisoners. Third, the abuse carried out by the prisoners wasn’t solely of their own devices; rather, more often than naught the prison superintendent, Zimbardo, categorically told the prisoners that “… we can create boredom. We can create a sense of frustration. We can create fear in them…they’ll have no privacy at all… they will have no freedom of action.” (Zimbardo 55) To top it all off, Zimbardo provides conflicting reflection on this abuse he helped to create. While in the preface he mentions how “it was emotionally painful to review all of the videotapes” and how “ time had dimmed my memory of the extent of the suffering of many of the prisoners,” (Zimbardo IX) Zimbardo actually justifies the abuses by presenting the argument of relative and absolute ethics while clearly stating that “was the SPE study unethical…however there are other ways of viewing this research that provide a reasonable no.” (Zimbardo 231)  Moreover, in his article ‘The lie of the Stanford prison experiment’, co-conspirator and ex-convict Carlo Prescott admits that ‘…ideas such as bags being placed over the heads of prisoners, inmates being bound together with chains and buckets being used in place of toilets in their cells were all experiences of mine in  the old Spanish jail.’ Hence, the authenticity of the experiment and the exact role being played by dispositional factors in dulling the sense of identities of the guards and forcing them to resort to ‘creative evil’ Is trivialized.  The Second set of problems with Zimbardo’s work is linked to the logistical drawbacks of the book; the book is an exhaustive read spread over 561 pages and Zimbardo takes more than 250 pages to present the events of the experiment which could have been summarized in much briefer and concise manner. As an extension of the previous point, the reason behind the writing of this book was to expose the claims made by whistleblowers against the Abu Ghraib prison and to understand why they were conducted in the first place; however, since Zimbardo takes so much time to delineate the findings of the SPE, the reader lose interest by the time they get the point of Abu Ghraib prison because of the monotonous way that Zimbardo presents the findings of his experiment. Last, the book has a fundamental weakness which other reviews often don’t cover in-detail. During both halves of the book, Zimbardo reconciles other acts of evil such as the sexual abuses conducted by clerics, the destruction causes by the My Lai butchery in Vietnam, the atrocities in Rwanda, but something very crucial is amiss in these examples; while Zimbardo reconciles them on the basis of his findings in the SPE and based on the commonality that they are all acts of evil, he fails to recognize that these events have more elements diametrically opposed to one another than they have in common. For example, one cannot possible associate the rape of the people of Rwanda with suicides in Jonestown because the necessary element of corruption of centralized power which is present in the case of Rwanda is absent in the latter example. Similarly, the atrocities conducted in Nanking cannot be linked with the harassment conducted by priests as the necessary element of imbuing religious clerics with unfettered authority is lacking in the first example. Hence, it is the specific sociological paradigms which Zimbardo doesn’t factor in while attempting to explaining these acts that make his work less credible.

Conclusion:

            The lucifer Effect is a book which indeed has rocked the cradle of 50 years’ worth of psychological research and has interesting ramifications on both prison systems and ethical standards of experimentation. Though being a slightly difficult read, the book is essential for everyone looking to make sense of evil acts which ubiquitously riddle their immediate surroundings and social landscapes. Though the book may be specifically useful for the personnel that regulate the servers at the time of enrollment, it’s a must-read for anybody with the willingness to put in the time.

 

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The history and significance of New Year festival

Contrary to popular belief, New Year’s wasn’t always celebrated on January 1st. Historically, it had been celebrated at many different times. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice while the Mesopotamians had been celebrating it on March 1st for centuries before that. The custom of celebrating the new year began in 45 B.C when Julius Caesar created the Julian calendar, moving the first day of the year from March 1st to January 1st. The practice fell out of custom in the Middle Ages as it was decreed as “unchristian” due to its supposed ties with paganism. It was then celebrated on 25 December instead. However, it was resurrected when the Gregorian calendar was implemented in 1982 and the date was given significance as ‘the day of circumcision’ following the Jewish tradition of circumcision and naming a child 8 days after its birth. Since then, New Year’s Day has been celebrated around the world and has recently gained considerable popularity in Pakistan too.

Festivities usually include gathering your loved ones and toasting to the upcoming year. A distinct feature of the event is fireworks and general fanfare to welcome the new year. The customs on New Year’s Day vary from country to country. A particularly significant event is of course the ball drop in New York City, which is a long standing tradition and seems to grow in its magnificence every year. In Greece, it is customary to turn off the lights at midnight and eat basil pie. This strange tradition does have a purpose – there is a hidden coin in the pie and whoever finds it is said to have good luck for the rest of the year! And the Greek aren’t the only ones with a strange custom. The Spanish eat 12 grapes at midnight to symbolise 12 months of fertility, and the Canadians and the Scandinavians, despite the extreme cold, plunge themselves in cold water!

These many many customs aren’t the only thing New Year’s has carried with it, it is accompanied by a long standing debate on whether or not the celebration has any use to society at all.

From a Marxist perspective, the festival is utter capitalist ploy. For Marx, mankind has been ruled by ‘historical materialism’, where every phase of civilized society had the fundamental characteristic of class inequality. The poor serfs or labour were made to work long and hard while the landowners and factory owners got the profit. For Marx, history can easily be viewed as an effort of the bourgeoisie to subdue the proletariat and control the means of production. He had predicted that one day the workers would realise this, gain class consciousness, and hence work to overthrow the capitalist structures. Clearly, this hasn’t happened till now. To explain this, neo-Marxists like Althusser devised the Ideological State Apparatus theory. This explains how media, religion and the state all propagate the capitalist ideology so that class consciousness is impossible to achieve. Our consumerist culture is of course a direct result of their efforts. Simply put, we now express ourselves in objects, constructing our identity around what we own and what we can afford. We express love by buying presents and anger by taking away items. We are addicted to buying more and more in order to fulfill the void that capitalism has created. Gradually, we are isolated from our peers because we are so consumed in our self preservation and reach the stage where everything without a price tag is meaningless. We are taught to work hard and continue working until we are able to afford all the luxuries that are flaunted in front of us all day, everyday. From this perspective, New Year’s Day is just another cog in the system. Nowadays, all festivals seem like nothing but capitalist constructs to get us to spend more and more, on food entertainment and gifts, than we did at the last occasion. Taking just one example, the whole month of December is laden with sales and advertisements to get us to spend our savings and end-of-year bonuses on lavish new year parties and dresses. On a psychological level, the significance of New Year’s eve comes from the way it delivers a sense of hope to the masses. The new year seems like an opportunity to bring change to one’s lifestyle, and for some, a chance to start over from scratch – a clean slate! For Marxists, this is merely a clever illusion to give people a false sense of control in their life. Organise your life with new drawers, buy new clothes to revamp your look for the new year, throw away old belongings to declutter your new life and the list goes on. They build a facade of control in our life, and very subtly shift the focus away from the people who are actually in control. We then believe we are the reason for our poverty or lack of success and not the sheer inequality of the capitalist society.

On the other hand, functionalists believe that everything in the status quo has a function. Durkheim founded the theory on ‘value consensus’ of a society. He believes that in order for society to function seamlessly, everyone must agree on the norms and values of the society. Once that has been established, every action of its members is to preserve and pass on those norms. For Parson, a society needs 4 things to function: an ability to adapt to the everyday challenges and changes of time, a collective goal, a mechanism to pass on values and a system to integrate its members. From this perspective, New Year’s eve has a distinct purpose. Festivals can be events to reinforce the collective identity and value consensus of a society. New Year’s showcases the culture and customs of a society, thus integrating its members and also passing them to the new generation. The Spanish custom of eating grapes or the American one of watching the ball drop all serve the same function. It is a moment for people to come together and celebrate their coexistence in harmony. The occasion celebrates life and our connection with one another. We feel connected not only to our society but to the rest of the world as well as we all step back and watch the countdown to a new year. In that moment we are reminded that we are all.

The history of new years is steeped in tradition and custom that is impossible to disregard. Even if it is just another holiday hijacked by the capitalist propaganda, it’s importance cannot be ignored.  It is up to us how we choose to spend the day and what significance we are willing to give it. Perhaps the real legacy of new years is its ability to make us reflect on our actions and give us hope for the coming year.

 

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The Winter Skin Survival Guide

If you’re like me, you tend to get super dry skin during the colder months of the year. Not only does dryness make your skin look tired and ashy, but if left untreated, it can lead to your skin becoming flaky, then cracking, or even eczema in more severe cases. But fret not! Even though your skin does require some extra TLC during the winter, it’s actually a very simple process to get rid of the Sahara Desert that has begun to take over your skin. I’ve listed some of the things that help me get smooth skin, below:

  1. Moisturize religiously

I mean that. Moisturize like your life depends upon it. Do it in the morning and at night before bed, and whenever else you feel like your skin needs a little extra. Also be sure to do it right after you shower to really seal in your skin’s natural oils and moisture. If you’ve been using those really pretty perfumed lotions, ditch them. They don’t do much, apart from looking super cute on your vanity. They’ve been shown to contain silicone, which makes your skin feel temporarily soft, but doesn’t actually hydrate it. They also contain some not-so-good-for-the-skin toxins, and perfume in skincare is generally a no-no, unless it’s completely natural. My personal favourite (and something my dermatologist also recommended to me) is Physiogel. It will hydrate skin regardless of how dry it is, and has no scent, so it’s perfect for sensitive skin too. It is a little on the pricier side, but it’s definitely an investment for your skin!

  1. Turn off the hot water

I know this one seems cruel, but hot showers do really dry your skin out! They sap the skin’s natural oils, and can even damage the surface of your skin if the water is too hot. So do yourself a favour, and turn the temperature on the water down. Because it’s impossible to take a cold shower during the winter (please don’t, you could get hypothermia), a slightly warm shower is perfect. Not only is it adequately comfortable, it won’t strip your skin of moisture, either. Also, a hydrating shower cream or bath oil will help further nourish your skin.

  1. Use an exfoliator or scrub

Exfoliating is an important part of most people’s summer skincare routine, but it’s also really important during the winter. Using a scrub or exfoliating wash will slough away the dead skin, encourage blood circulation and cell rejuvenation. This will ultimately allow new skin cells to emerge that haven’t been affected by the harsh winter weather. I recommend using a homemade scrub so that you know exactly what’s it in. The sugar scrub I make at home contains brown sugar and white sugar (equal parts), natural coconut oil and raw honey. To use it, scrub it onto your skin (this is especially good for your hands and feet), massage for a few minutes and then wash it off. It’ll leave your skin feeling like silk, I’m not even joking. After you wash it off and dry your skin, don’t forget to- you guessed it- MOISTURIZE!

  1. Visit the dermatologist

Finally, if your skin becomes dry to the point of itching, burning or forming a rash, definitely go see your dermatologist. It could be eczema, which spreads quite quickly and needs to be treated with prescription medication. Don’t put going to the dermatologist off, as this could make your problems much worse.

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Politics In Verse: Inquilab Zindabad

The subcontinent, both pre and post partition, has never been without the public’s political discontent as can be made evident by a look through its history of mutinies, martial law, and disobedience movements. Discontent, moreover, is a phenomena easily romanticized, especially with its enticing allure upon the subordinate as well as the adolescent segments of a society. Poetry, therefore, principally that which has political subtexts, has never found itself wanting of inspiration in this part of the world. The fame of poets including Nazeer Akbarabadi, Khwaja Mir Dard, Bahadur Shah Zafar, and of those more contemporary including Habib Jalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz is indicative of this perpetual inspiration.

Ben Learner, in his book, “The Hatred of Poetry”, portrays “contempt” as inseparable from the success of poetry. However, he does not attribute to poetry the potential to aggravate change. Similarly, many would argue that the form is merely a peripheral influencer of the consensus, an apolitical concept, and the importance given to it is reflective of both elitist sentiments and naïve intuition.

The writings of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, an Indo-Pakistani leftist poet however, stand for exactly what this critique of poetry denies. As an answer to Zia’s repressive usurpation of power, the poet created one of his most powerful works, ‘Hum Dekhain Gey”. With Faiz imprisoned, bootleg cassette tapes with recordings of a performance of this work by Iqbal Bano in her controversial black sari were smuggled throughout the country. A particular interpretation of his verses attributes to Zia, the great sin of associating himself with God, and hence his words aim to awake the consciences of the suppressed classes and do away with the prevalent mirage of amity.

It is a theory that the intimacy associated with a scrutinized reading of poetry is a materialization of the elitism it inherently emerges from. It suggests that as a poet must discover his audience, the reader must also identify a poet that he or she resonates with the most. To put it bluntly, poetry has its own niche, not suited to the masses, rather to a distinct type of individual who retrieves from the poetry a mutuality of ‘frequency’. As it happens, the distinct type referred to often alludes to the affluent.

Habib Jalib, however, another Indo-Pakistani poet, born in East Punjab, may indeed be, in the words of the aforementioned Faiz, “ the poet of the masses”. He wrote in a straightforward language, encompassing the plights of the working class. When Bhutto’s policies diverged from the essentially socialist manifesto of the PPP, Jalib took notice and spoke against the government in support of the Pakistanis who suffered at the hands of this divergence. He was jailed for what was not his first term in prison at the hands of a ruler uncompromising and unwilling to face opposition.

Passivity and apathy describe the level of animation of the Pakistani citizenry and are extremely uncharacteristic adjectives for Iqbal’s poetry, verses to which we owe the inspiration of the Pakistan Movement. If poetry is really food for the soul then it is poetry which must extend the promise of revolution to Pakistanis that must become hungry for their liberation. After 71 long years of coups, corruption charges, and media blackouts, poets such as Jalib and Faiz should be recognized for their tenacity and resolve when it came to sketching for the public, the moral destination that Pakistan has to progress to. They created visionary works accessible to more than just the crème de la crème of Pakistan, works unstained by naivety.

Come, gather your possessions,

O people with injured hearts.

Come, O Friends,

Let us go and get killed.

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Bhutto’s legacy in hot waters

https://www.facebook.com/lumspublications/posts/2014496772005172

The financial scandal following the JIT report has found the Zardari family along with the PPP and Sindh Government to be in hot waters. With the undertakings by the current federal government under the regime of Imran Khan has seen a renowned party in Punjab go through the charges posed on them. Therefore, it comes with no doubt that the fate of PPP will suffer if not same, but pretty relevant consequences alleged as far as the JIT report is concerned.

The money-laundering case as per the report has definitely thrown a turmoil in the Sindh government and a political storm seems inevitable as for now. However, the most tarnishing point following this scandal is the political future of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, which hangs by a weak thread, in addition to the fate of the former president.

This has, in turn, kept the followers in fear that their last hope to carry on the Bhutto legacy might be lost in the scandal. Although always under the political shadow of his shrewd father, Bilawal has made a significant impact on parliamentary politics. But his involvement in this financial scandal could adversely affect his politics.  For the charges imposed are indeed critical and would result in a prolonged legal and political battle which would restrain Pakistan People’s Party’s political participation and its progress in general.

While these allegations might be imposed and the unruly statements by Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, who referred to Sindh being run by ‘goons’ may seem to reflect the Sindh government being overthrown. It is not really that easy to manipulate or destabilize the provincial government. For this in itself would be disastrous for the system, especially at a time when it is faced with economic and political challenges. Politics of confrontation is not an option at the moment.

Coming to the other side of the picture, the role of the federal government, PTI is a stark contrast to their slogan for the sacredness of vote. These allegations and dethroning are not entirely due to the incompetence or corruption charges against the Sindh government but are also in the will to establish a one-party system. And PTI has become a key player in this game, continuously reminding us of such previous attempts in the 1990s, where the governments were installed or removed overnight.

Nevertheless, the political dynamics of the province have changed owing to PTI becoming the second largest party in the province in addition to its electoral victory in Karachi. This along with a strong financial background has given PPP a tough challenge in its own province and has led to a politics that might end up marring the province in the end.

As of now, there is no need to create intimidation or any power syndrome. As this will only ensure a strong uno or a weak center. The sense of national integration at this point is of utmost importance and so is the separation of the accountability process with that of the politics. However, the government’s actions only act to reinforce angsts; they need to find a way to cure the political tension and instability.

 

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Some mental health tips for surviving at LUMS

When I came to LUMS, I was messed up in too many ways to count. On top of that I didn’t even know about the bomb that was building up inside me that just needed LUMS as an excuse to burst. Most of us, especially the hostelites, we get to learn so much about ourselves when we embark on this journey of LUMS. Sometimes it is because we have to live in a small room, disconnected from our families who are our emotional support systems. It is when we are stuck in those rooms that all the inner insecurities, frustrations and voices rise in our life and they become bigger than life. It is at that time that we break and we curse LUMS for messing us up. I am not justifying the system of LUMS here; I will be the last person to. All I am saying is that this journey of pain and tears makes us so much better as individuals. Here are some of the tips that I have come up for staying sane at LUMS.

  1. Do something for yourself

The routines that we have at LUMS, it is easy to forget that we exist as individuals and our emotional health is much more important than all the academics. Some of us have such bad routines, especially the SSE people that we forget to find time for ourselves. We start our days in a hurry to get to classes and we sleep while thinking of our classes. I know it’s hard to survive at this and you have too much on your plate but trust me you can spare one hour for yourself in the whole mayhem. Specify one hour each day where you are going to do something solely for your enjoyment and you are going to do it alone. If you are a writer then just sit and write. If you can sketch then do that. Take a bicycle and go for a ride. Swim till all you can think about is swimming. Sit alone and gaze at the sky. Do all this without the background voices telling you that you are wasting your time. If you don’t give time to yourself then you will become angry, irritated, frustrated, tired and depressed in this schedule.

  1. Exercise

You don’t have to spend long hours at the gym or the swimming pool. The aim is not to build a body but the aim is to build barriers for your mind. For 15 to 30 minutes do some exercise be that yoga, aerobics or just a simple walk. Physical exercise helps a lot in relieving all the pent of frustration and anxiety in our bodies.

  1. Seek Help

I agree with you that not everyone at LUMS is helpful or approachable but that is just a minority. There are so many people out there, both in the admin and the student council who would love to help you. Twice in my years at LUMS, I have had anxiety and panic attacks due to a course and I have received immense support from the faculty. All I would do was send a mail and a number of people would reach out to me to help me. If you are going through a difficult time in life then reach out to someone from the LUMS community.

  1. Stop Comparing

I have a horrible GPA and I spent too much of my life being upset over that. Yes there are ‘theetas’ out there and may God bless them but that has nothing to do with you are as a person. Not everyone was meant to get a 4.0 and that is okay. Make your CV so strong that even a 4.0 can’t beat you. We live in a much progressive world and you can prove your worth in many more ways than the GPA on your transcript.

  1. Ditch the Toxicity

I had the luck of making horrible friends and it is now in senior year that I am learning to shed the old and make new friends. Be smart from the beginning and don’t make friends who further pull you down and make you feel even worse about yourself. Everyone is suffering from some emotional trauma I life and they have the tendency to take that out on friends. If you feel like you can’t deal with that then get out of that relationship. Make friends who can provide you with laughter when LUMS hits you.