Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

Typical Dutch – Washing the Dishes

When i came to Holland three years ago i was mentally prepared for a cultural shock. From my earlier experiences in England i had a pretty good idea of the things to come. But it seems mental preparedness isn't of much help when you join a new society, enter a new phase, or loose the dependedness on the closed ones. Truth be said, i had a wonderful wonderful time in this country and the joy ride is still going on. I have had so many wonderful experiences here that i find it hard to resist jotting them down now; not for you or anyone else, but for my own sake; for those lonely old age times which will come someday (in the next century) and which i can go through laughing and smiling and basking in the old times by reading my old lines. Love this last line, sounds like poetry ;)

I wrote a small story on Typical Dutch – The Dutch Mountains last week and i will continue with another one on the same lines. This time its gonna be about the dish washing experience.

How do you wash your dishes? If you ask me, before i came to this country, i don't remember washing anything more than a glass or plate or a spoon. The way dishes are done in my country is first you rinse them with water, then use dish washing soap on them and then wash them again with water. It is hygienic and it takes a lot of time: i wouldn't be exagerating if i say hours because that is what it takes. So when i first saw the Dutch way of washing the dishes i was like how and wow.

This is how its done the Dutch way. Use the stopper to block the sink hole. Fill the sink with hot water and add in a lot of dish washing liquid. Then throw in all the dirty dishes including pans, plates, and glasses. Leave them in for a few minutes, then pick up the brush and rub them once or twice if you want to be generous. Take them out and either put them on drying rack or dry them with a cloth. There is no need to rinse them with clean water to remove the soap. The water in the sink is dark and dirty by now but don’t even think of changing it. Just add in more washing liquid and throw more dishes in it. And the process continues until all the dishes are clean. That's it. So simple, so time saving, so energy saving and so water saving.

The first time i saw it happening i was shocked. The first time i did my dishes this way, i felt sheepish. The first time my friends (Pakistani) saw me doing my dishes this way, they were staring at me as if i had grown horns on my head. To tell you the truth at first i used to rinse my plates before using them, but now i simply don’t give a damn. Seems time has Dutch-tized me. I absolutely love doing it this way. Those who says its unhygienic, i haven't got ill yet by using those same dishes and i don't know of anyone in my corridor getting ill with it  either. It works perfectly well, and is thus recommended ;)

Typical Dutch - The Dutch Mountain

From my early lessons in geography I had learned that Holland was a flat country and lay below sea level. During my early days here (year 2007) a Dutch friend was telling me about Wageningen and what a special place it is, with its history of the surrender of the Germans at the 5 Mei Plein and a battle between the allied troops and Germans close by. Then she went on to say that we have a mountain near Wageningen as well. I was very surprised to hear about it and showed an interest in visiting it.

The next week we went to see the mountain. I was very excited about going for a climb and was fully prepared for a bit of hiking. And then there we were. The conversation went something like this:

Her: Here we are.

Me: (looking around) Where?

Her: This is it.

Me: (chuckling and thinking she was playing a joke on me) This is what?

Her: The mountain. We are standing at the top.

I looked down to my feet, fully expecting to find the word 'Mountain' carved in the ground and to find myself the victim of a practical joke, but alas..... She was serious.

Then she sensed my dumbfoundedness and said 'I know it's not much but this is our mountain'. And I was like, 'This is not even a hill. How can you call it a mountain?'

Even now I often hear about this mountain which sounds to me like some sort of urban legend. You see, I come from Pakistan which is home to over a 100 peaks above 7000 meters and probably the same number above 6000 meters. So my perception of a mountain is very different. The Dutch apparently don't want to believe the obvious: Holland is a flat country and there are no mountains in Wageningen.

The Survivor of Michni Post

The Following is a Column by Mustansar Hussain Tarar which appeared in DAWN issue of 23 May 2004. A very intresting column to read. 

A PICK-up, fully loaded with the local security forces i.e. Khasadars, sped through the maze of Khyber Pass escorting us to the Pak-Afghan border at Torkham. And with them, our car, engulfed in the dust raised by the speeding pick-up, tried its best to keep up with our escort. Their guns, instead of scanning the tribal hills speeding by, pointed at us, the possible victims of a possible abduction by the tribesmen.

The Khasadars are recruited from the tribes Khyber and understandably are always trigger-happy. They have been trigger-happy for thousands of years, although before the invention of trigger they were sword-happy or something.

Whenever I looked in front of me, they were glaring at me with their guns ready to shoot. Naturally this gave me no comfort. Before venturing into this historical trip, I had objected meekly to a fully loaded escort. But my host Dr Jamil said solemnly “Tarar sahib these Khasadars are especially deputed by the Tehsildar of Khyber Agency for your safety and this is our way to honour a guest. Besides, in the tribal territories one can never be too careful. For a known person like you there is a reasonable chance of being abducted.”

For the first time in my life I realized that I was important enough to be abducted and the realization inflated my ego considerably. However, much to my disappointment at the end of the day nothing of the sort happened, although at times I exhibited my presence openly. I grinned at the tribesmen so that they may recognize me and at least show a little bit of interest in abducting me. But no one bothered. What rotten luck!

“How much ransom would you be willing to pay if I am abducted?” I asked my wife who was accompanying me.

“Whatever they demand my love.” I was vastly moved by her matrimonial commitment. “Only if they promise not to return you,” she added. Who says true love is hard to come by these days.

Peshawar is one city that finds a special place near my heart, right next to Lahore. For me its charms include, leaving aside its haphazard traffic (dirt and guns are innumerable) its Kasera Bazaar near the gem of Habit Khan Mosque. I have spent many a delightful hours in its dingy and dark shops looking for antiques and Gandhara pieces.

The Shinwari Tikka, Lamb Karahi and all sorts of grilled meat at the famous Namak Mandi are stuff of the gourmet dream. Only the Pathan knows the art of cooking meat because besides religion he is a fanatic as far as love of eating meat is concerned. One can, and it is from personal experience that I say, consume more that kilo of Shinwari Tikka followed by the magical herbal Qehwa without any aftereffects. And after only three hours, one is ready to consume more. However, the preference this time would be Chappal Kebabs and fish of Bakhshu.

The architectural amazement of Sethi Molalla’s Havelis is unique in the subcontinent. Beside these charms Peshawar has produced a horde of actors who became a legend in their life times.

What with the dozens of Kapoors whose vast population even now dominates the Mumbai film world, it was the inimitable Prithivi Raj who started it all without ever giving a second thought to population planning.

The great Dilip Kumar and his talented brothers including Nasser Khan who was the hero of the first Pakistani film ever made. And there is the present heartthrob Shahrukh Khan. Lets not forget the inimitable Gubbar Singh of Sholay? Amjad Khan’s father Jaint, was also a unique film actor.

Another great from this area was Gul Hamid the most famous hero of Agha Hasher’s stage plays. However, lets not forget our own TV great Mohammad Qavi Khan, Ajab Gul, Khayyam Sarhadi, son of Zia Sarhadi of Hum Log fame. Most of them are not Pathan in the strict sense of the word.

For instance Prithivi Raj Kapoor, although his haveli still exists in Peshawar where he produced most of the Kapoors, was basically a Punjabi from a small village near the present Faisalabad. Even today, their household clings to Punjabi and Hindko language. And the same goes for Dilip Kumar and brothers, and Shahrukh Khan, they are Hindko speaking.

It is this magic of the ‘Khans’ from Peshawar, that in Bollywood, the new heroes from Tamil Naidu also add a ‘Khan’ to their first name. A few years back a prominent Indian film producer came to Lahore to hunt for new scripts and when confronted with this question as to why every new comer in Bollywood prefers to be a ‘Khan’ he explained:

“Whenever we produce a film with an entirely new cast the first question a distributor asks, ‘Baba where are these new birds from?’, and if we tell them that the new hero is a ‘Khan’ and the heroine is from Punjab, our film is sold right away because in Bollywood the charm of ‘Khans’ and the beauty of Punjab is legendary.”

My apologies, I almost forgot to mention and what a great crime it would have been, the most unforgettable beauty unsurpassed so far; Madhubala was also a Peshawarite.

Peshawar has a very chilling dramatic sense of humour of its own. Some years back I was invited to preside a literary function at Peshawar University. As soon as I was seated on the stage of Senate Hall, the student next to me, who was a functionary of student union said, “Tarar Sahib you are sitting on a very historical stage.” He was grinning cheek-to-cheek.

“On this very stage sat, on the very spot where you are seated, Mr Hayat Ahmad Sherpao when a bomb was placed underneath the stage that killed him.” Although I tried to grin back for this great honour, but could not, and during the function all I did was to control my shaking legs.

Yesterday, while I was being placed on the stage of Khyber Medical College as a chief guest, the first question I asked the organizers, “I hope this stage of yours is not very historic?” Naturally the organizers were puzzled, just smiled back thinking in their heart of hearts that Mr Tarar has become a little foggy due to old age. Little did they know about history.

But today they were kind enough to take me into a historical Pass. The formidable Jamrud Fort neared. Built by the great Sikh General Hari Singh Nalwa in a record time of fifty-days as the legend says. However, we drove by and finally stopped at the foot of famous Michni Post.

On top of Michni there was a relief map of the surrounding area and Pak-Afghan border post, Torkham. In front of this detailed relief map was a comfortable seating area where normally head of states and visiting foreign delegation were seated while a young-man of the Khyber Rifles pointed out the major landmarks with the help of a baton. For a closer look, a mounted binocular was available. The young guide Mr Sami Afridi at first was slightly puzzled because we in no way looked like the dignitaries he was used to. Then he was kind enough to recognize me and smiled; with a sombre face he started the often repeated lecture.

“Sir, the Khyber Pass is one of the most historical passes in the world, on your way up you must have noticed a plaque declaring that during the first Anglo-Afghan war the whole British Army was wiped out by the Afghans and only one surgeon survived to tell the tale. Michni was the post where this lone survivor arrived and collapsed”, he looked at us triumphantly as if he had personally destroyed the British force, we looked reasonably impressed.

“Before the British, Alexander the Great descended through this Pass. Then came Babar, Taimur, Mehmud Ghaznavi, Abdali and Chengaiz Khan, this way.” Although Alexander, according to my knowledge, did not cross-over from this point and I doubt if Chengaiz Khan personally led the Mongols into India, but we had to look impressed, so we did.

Then Mr Afridi pointed to an old Buddhist wall, a torture chamber used personally by Taimur. In the mountains beyond lay Tora Bora, the supposed hideout of Osama Bin Laden; the Ayub Chowki which was acquired in lieu of some other post in Chitral; the town of Torkham and the lecture ended and he invited questions.

“Young man, you have mentioned all the armies who came through this pass to invade India, but do you know that in the history of subcontinent there was only one totally Indian army that went the other way i.e. crossed the Khyber and for once invaded Afghanistan?”

“No Sir!” he was again puzzled.

“It was the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh which had a very strong Muslim element lead by General Hari Singh Nalwa, the founder of present Haripur town near Abbotabad which turned the tide and crossed into Afghanistan and conquered it. For generations the Afghan mothers while putting their children to sleep whispered, ‘go to sleep otherwise Nalwa would come’, like the Punjabi mothers who frightened their young ones into sleep by saying, ‘go to sleep, otherwise Abdali would come’.

“As a matter of fact when Maharaja Ranjit Singh was praised for capturing Afghanistan he or Nalwa said, ‘It is not difficult at all, along with swords, take a few bags of money and what the sword won’t achieve, money will’. Our good friends the Americans tried the same method and succeeded.”

“Sir we just narrate what we are told, if you write to the commandant perhaps he will add this bit of history also.”

“I know he won’t, what to talk of Ranjit Singh who was a Sikh, even the names of Chandar Gupt Moria and Great Ashok are not included in the history of Khyber whose empires extended beyond Afghanistan into Central Asia, although they were Buddhists and well before the advent of Islam.”

Well, all said and done, Michni Post was an experience and I thank the young Afridi and the lone survivor of the Anglo-Afghan War for that. If he had not survived there would have been no Michni around. My wife plucked a lovely creeper from the ground, we have replanted it in our home, hoping it will survive.

Express Your Love in 100 Languages

English - I love you
Afrikaans - Ek het jou lief
Albanian - Te dua
Arabic - Ana behibak (to male)
Arabic - Ana behibek (to female)
Armenian - Yes kez sirumen
Bambara - M’bi fe
Bangla - Aamee tuma ke bhalo baashi
Belarusian - Ya tabe kahayu
Bisaya - Nahigugma ako kanimo
Bulgarian - Obicham te
Cambodian - Soro lahn nhee ah
Cantonese Chinese - Ngo oiy ney a
Catalan - T’estimo
Cheyenne - Ne mohotatse
Chichewa - Ndimakukonda
Corsican - Ti tengu caru (to male)
Creol - Mi aime jou
Croatian - Volim te
Czech - Miluji te
Danish - Jeg Elsker Dig
Dutch - Ik hou van jou
Esperanto - Mi amas vin
Estonian - Ma armastan sind
Ethiopian - Afgreki’
Faroese - Eg elski teg
Farsi - Doset daram
Filipino - Mahal kita
Finnish - Mina rakastan sinua
French - Je t’aime, Je t’adore
Frisian - Ik h⬤ fan dy
Gaelic - Ta gra agam ort
Georgian - Mikvarhar
German - Ich liebe dich
Greek - S’agapo
Gujarati - Hoo thunay prem karoo choo
Hiligaynon - Palangga ko ikaw
Hawaiian - Aloha wau ia oi
Hebrew - Ani ohev otah (to female)
Hebrew - Ani ohev et otha (to male)
Hiligaynon - Guina higugma ko ikaw
Hindi - Hum Tumhe Pyar Karte hae
Hmong - Kuv hlub koj
Hopi - Nu’ umi unangwa’ta
Hungarian - Szeretlek
Icelandic - Eg elska tig
Ilonggo - Palangga ko ikaw
Indonesian - Saya cinta padamu
Inuit - Negligevapse
Irish - Taim i’ ngra leat
Italian - Ti amo
Japanese - Aishiteru
Kannada - Naanu ninna preetisuttene
Kapampangan - Kaluguran daka
Kiswahili - Nakupenda
Konkani - Tu magel moga cho
Korean - Sarang Heyo
Latin - Te amo
Latvian - Es tevi miilu
Lebanese - Bahibak
Lithuanian - Tave myliu
Malay - Saya cintakan mu / Aku cinta padamu
Malayalam - Njan Ninne Premikunnu
Mandarin Chinese - Wo ai ni
Marathi - Me tula prem karto
Mohawk - Kanbhik
Moroccan - Ana moajaba bik
Nahuatl - Ni mits neki
Navaho - Ayor anosh’ni
Norwegian - Jeg Elsker Deg
Pandacan - Syota na kita!!
Pangasinan - Inaru Taka
Papiamento - Mi ta stimabo
Persian - Doo-set daaram
Pig Latin - Iay ovlay ouyay
Polish - Kocham Ciebie
Portuguese - Eu te amo
Romanian - Te iubesc
Russian - Ya tebya liubliu
Scot Gaelic - Tha gra\dh agam ort
Serbian - Volim te
Setswana - Ke a go rata
Sign Language - ,\,,/ (represents position of fingers when signing’I Love You’)
Sindhi - Maa tokhe pyar kendo ahyan
Sioux - Techihhila
Slovak - Lu`bim ta
Slovenian - Ljubim te
Spanish - Te quiero / Te amo
Swahili - Ninapenda wewe
Swedish - Jag alskar dig
Swiss-German - Ich lieb Di
Tagalog - Mahal kita
Taiwanese - Wa ga ei li
Tahitian - Ua Here Vau Ia Oe
Tamil - Nan unnai kathalikaraen
Telugu - Nenu ninnu premistunnanu
Thai - Chan rak khun (to male)
Thai - Phom rak khun (to female)
Turkish - Seni Seviyorum
Ukrainian - Ya tebe kahayu
Urdu - mai aap say pyaar karta hoo
Vietnamese - Anh ye^u em (to female)
Vietnamese - Em ye^u anh (to male)
Welsh - ‘Rwy’n dy garu di  Â
Yiddish - Ikh hob dikh
Yoruba - Mo ni fe

A Journey called Life

It’s a Bitter – Sweet experience 

to think what a long way I have Traveled 

and how many people I befriended and lost on the way.

It also tells Me about the many things 

for which I have to be Grateful.

Perfect Stranger

Tragedy of Commons in Fishing: Is ITQ the Solution?

Fishing for sustenance has been practiced for thousands of years, probably starting from the times when hunter-gatherers roamed the Earth. The hunter-gatherers were limited to catching small quantities of fish from shallow lakes and along the seashore, and the catch was for immediate consumption. The growth of earth’s population and start of earlier civilization resulted in an increase in use of fish for sustenance. During the Mesolithic Period (c. 10,000-6,000 BC), the first civilizations developed that relied heavily on fish for sustenance. These civilizations invented primitive fishing tools, such as stone-tipped fishing spears, fishhooks, fish lines, and nets, and  developed new techniques of preservation such as salting, drying, smoking, and fermentation. Since then the fishing industry has expanded to whooping proportions, reaching an estimated catch of up to 96 million tons in year 2000. [1]   

Fishing in open seas is one of the most convincing examples of tragedy of commons, and as such,

bringing the industry under the net is a big challenge. The expansion of fishing fleets through the late 1980s and improvements in fish-finding and harvesting technologies has resulted in expansion of fishing at greater depths and in more remote waters. According to FAO estimates, over the past 50 years, the number of large predatory fish in the oceans has dropped by a startling 90 percent, and the 4 million vessels scouring the world’s waters are at or exceeding the sustainable yields of three quarters of all oceanic fisheries [2].

To put a check on this ever expanding fish industry and dwindling fish populations, a number of input and output controls can be put in place. Input controls include limiting the number of participants, restricting season length, closing fishing areas and restricting types and amount of gear, while output controls include various methods of limiting the amount of fish harvested, below a total allowable catch based on a predetermined long-term sustainable level. One such output control measure is Individual Tradable Quotas (ITQs), which amounts to exclusive and transferable rights to harvest and are primarily an instrument for promoting economic efficiency rather than conservation. ITQs puts a lid on total fish catch and allocates quotas to individuals which can be traded in market. If these rights are of sufficiently high quality, they eliminate a good part of the common property problem and create incentives for the ITQ-holders to collectively take steps to maximize the market value of their fishing rights.

ITQs have been successful to a certain extent in putting a check on overfishing problem and up to 15% of the global ocean catch is currently taken under ITQs [3]. The expansion of the method to more countries can increase this number, but not every thing is perfect about ITQs. Some concerns with ITQs are:

Initial allocations

Just as is the case with tradable carbon permits in environmental sector, permits are generally given to individuals or vessels based on catch history over several years. This raises the questions of equity as new fishers are excluded from the allocation, and fishers who have harvested large quantities of fish in the past (perhaps unsustainably) are allocated the largest share of the total allowable catch.

Corporate Structure

The consolidation of quota shares by large industrial vessels that have the money and power to buy out smaller boats creates a corporate structure, effectively destroying small fishing communities and creating serious social consequences. For example in New Zealand, 80% of quotas are owned by 10% of the permit holders and in Iceland 700 of the 1,000 small boat fishermen sold their quota to industrialized fishing boats [4].

By Catch

By catch is the name for the unwanted creatures that are also caught in the nets and are either too small or wrong species. They are thrown back into the water and usually die. Around a quarter of everything caught is by catch, which is enough to make over 5 billion meals. It is not just fish that are killed. Sharks, turtles and dolphins often get caught in nets. Tuna nets in the Pacific killed hundreds of thousands of dolphins. In Southern Oceans, albatross (large sea birds) get caught on the baited hooks of longlines for 'dolphin friendly' tuna.

Over fishing of costly species

Since fisheries can catch only a certain amount of fish only, they concentrate on certain species which can carry good prices in the market. This creates problems of over fishing of certain species, thus creating an imbalance in marine ecosystem as well as endangering the over caught species.

Besides these direct effects of ITQs, fishing industry is causing a lot more environmental damage in the oceans which is not taken care of in ITQ management system. This include the damage to sea bed by trawlers or dredgers for shell fish, and the discarded nets, also called 'ghost nets', which drift around in the sea entangling fish and other sea creatures.

In conclusion, ITQs are not perfect and although they have solved the problem of over fishing to certain extent, it needs to be expanded to include provisions which limit fishing of exotic species as well. Moreover, the environmental damage to ocean bed by use of seas as sinks by fishing vessels should be controlled through better monitoring. This can be done by assigning signatured fishing equipment to fishing companies, so that any found discarded equipment can be traced back to the culprit and penalties place on them. Effective monitoring is also required to control the discarding of by catch. To bring more equity in the fishing industry, the initial allocation should be divided through partly auctioning and partly grandfathering, where small fisheries get a certain allocation through grand fathering.

 

References

 1.History of the Capture Fishing Industry, http://www7.taosnet.com/platinum/data/whatis/historycapture.html

2. Larsen, Janet. 2005. Wild Fish Catch Hits Limits-Oceanic Decline Offset by Increased Fish Farming, Earth Policy Institute.

http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/Fish/2005.htm

3. Arnason, Ragnar. 2006. Fisheries Self-management under ITQs, paper given at the Workshop on Advances in Rights-based Fisheries Management, Reykjavik.

 4. Duke university website, Individual Transferable/Fishing Quotas, http://www.biology.duke.edu/bio217/2002/fish/management.html

 5. UK Environmental Agency, Problems caused by Fishing Industry, http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/commondata/acrobat/fishing2_581665.pdf