Sayeeda Warsi - An Interview

Q&A with Baroness Warsi

BY ARSHAD SHARIF

In an interview with Arshad Sharif of “Reporter” on DawnNews, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi spoke on numerous topics including the floods, the war in Afghanistan, trust deficit of the Pakistani government and her stance on the veil for Muslim women. Following is an English transcript of an Urdu interview with Baroness Warsi on “Reporter” in August 2010.

Q: You have come to Pakistan at a time when the floods have ravaged the country, and have visited some of the areas. What is the situation onground?

A: I think I could never have been prepared to witness what I saw yesterday. I had come here after the 2005 earthquake and visited Muzzafarabad. In many ways, that was the first disaster that I had seen. But the scenes that I witnessed yesterday, it seemed as if someone had bombed the place or flattened the entire villages and towns using a bulldozer. Some exterior walls were still standing, but once you saw beyond those walls, you could see that entire neighborhoods had been destroyed. And it was very disturbing and very emotional talking to people over there. It was very difficult for me because on the one hand I had gone there to learn, to listen to their stories, to see their situation and to share their grief, but on the other hand the British government has given a commitment of over $50 million and the British public has also given over  £15 million …

Q: Baroness, now that you have witnessed the situation firsthand, will you raise a voice for Pakistan at the international level? It is being said that the international community is not responding according to the scale of this catastrophe.

A: I was here yesterday with Andrew Mitchell, who is the international secretary of state for the Department for International Development (DFID) in the UK, and he has already left for New York this morning to attend the UN conference where he is going to ask the world to do more. Along with this when I go back to the UK, I’ll be asking the public, the diaspora community, the business community to do more. Do we have to do more because you are a frontline state? I don’t think that’s the key reason. We must do more because there is a need, there is a humanitarian need here, and I think that’s the first and foremost thing we must bear in mind. You know I talked to a woman over there and she was standing there telling me that she has lost everything and all that she has are these clothes over her body. And I think our first response is due to humanitarian reasons, after that we look at the reasons for all other responses.

Q: There is talk of a trust deficit that maybe the Pakistan government is not trusted enough and even the British government is giving most of the money through NGOs. In case of United States we are also seeing the same thing, the European Commission has also said yesterday that they’ll give most of their money through NGO’s or through the United Nations. Do you think there is a trust deficit?

Q: I think getting the NGOs involved is not necessarily due to trust deficit. I think the reason for using the NGOs is because they are more flexible, they are on the ground and are already working there. The smaller charities, the different organisations which are currently involved there, they can move very quickly. And if you look at organisations like the Islamic Relief, within hours and days they were there, and they were setting up and [were] able to operate. I think the issue of trust deficit is there, there’s no doubt about that, it’s not as if we can deny that. Even your own politicians are not denying it and I think that’s a good thing that you can only deal with a problem if you acknowledge that there is a problem in the first place.

Is that the reason the world isn’t responding? Maybe, but it could also be that the flood disaster is not an issue where thousands or millions of people have lost their lives in an instant. Thankfully, it’s not one of those disasters where a lot of lives are lost. [That being said] it’s one of those disasters which unfolds. It first started in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, then came down to Punjab and then Sindh, the disaster is unfolding day-by-day and its consequences are also unfolding day-by-day. So because of that it is much difficult to sell to the world, to say this is a huge disaster and you need to respond, which is why it was necessary that I and Andrew come here and look at things ourselves.

But I think the issue of trust deficit is also being discussed, is also being dealt with. I spoke to Mian Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister Gilani, General Nadeem, had a meeting with the finance minister, and all of them are pulling in the right direction. One of the things I suggested was that the overseas Pakistanis who are involved in their country’s society and institutions, you should call upon them as well. I was speaking yesterday to the Norwegian ambassador who told me  about a politician of Pakistani origin who is very successful. Such people in the diasporic community [are vital] who know that they don’t just only give money but are also involved in the transparency and delivery process.

Q: Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, you are the most powerful woman in Britain and are also a Muslim woman. In it there are some identity issues which might haunt you especially when people like Anjem Chaudhry of Al-Muhajiroun say that people like you are like coconuts, brown on the outside and white on the inside. How do you deal with the identity crisis? When you come to Pakistan expectations from you are different, while when you are in Britain the expectations are different, at the same time being of Pakistani descent and having a Muslim identity. How do you balance all of this?

A: I think the accolade I got of being the most powerful Muslim woman [in Britain] is very flattering. But my daughter said to me, yes mother you are the most powerful Muslim woman but it is still you who makes daal paratha in the house at sehri time, not anyone else. So I think that there are roles that women still have to adopt and I think that I’m very comfortable with those very different roles. I think the Pakistani origin identity I have, I’m proud of it. Being a Muslim, I’m proud of it. Being born in Britain, being raised there, being a cabinet minister in that society I’m very privileged and I’m proud of it. And I don’t feel that in all those there should be inconsistencies. It is not necessary that if you’re a Muslim you can’t be a British, or if you’re a British you can’t be a Muslim or from a Pakistani origin. I think it’s about how comfortable you are in your identity and how openly and with pride you can say that’s fine this is what I am. And I think saying in front of the Downing Street, I’m proud to be a cabinet Minister and wearing shalwar kameez saying I’m also proud to be a Pakistani and openly saying I’m of the Muslim faith and proud to do that, I don’t think that that’s an identity crisis. Yeah there are idiots in Britain, you’ve named some of them, who have an issue of identity crisis themselves, who think that they are the only ones who can raise the voice of Islam or it is only they who can promote their culture, but in reality those people are a blotch on the name of Islam. They bring to my religion, to my beautiful religion, a bad name and bring a bad name to my culture and they represent all those characteristics which I think are not part of our religion or our culture.

Q: How would you define Britishness? What is Britishness?

A: Britishness is a feeling of tolerance, it is a feeling of allowing people to live their lives the way they wish to live their lives. It’s about fairness, it’s about meritocracy, it’s about a dream where somebody like me a laborer’s daughter can be born in that country whose parents went there with 200 rupees in their pockets and they set up multi million businesses there. It’s people like me whose families have no political history, no political background.

Q: Equal opportunity, merit, tolerance, you mentioned all these things. But in Europe and also Britain there is currently a move going on about burqa, that it should be banned and the all-encompassing face niqab should also be banned. What are your views on this? Do you think this should take place? Do you feel it is restrictive, and all the things you mentioned about Britishness, do you think this merges with those things or not?

A: My statements about burqa have been very very clear right from the outset that no country has the right to tell a woman what she should wear and what she should not wear. This is a woman’s choice that what dress she adopts for herself. If she wants to wear shalwar kameez or she wants to wear trouser suit or she wants to wear a burqa this is her individual choice and that’s Britishness, about allowing people to choose what they want to wear. I think, and I also said this before, that it is not the right of some middle-aged British man to stand up and tell a Muslim woman, or any woman, that your skirt is too short, your kameez is too tight, your dupatta is too long or your niqab is too dark. That is none of their business, that is a choice for women to make and it is an instinctively British right that women have these rights to make these choices and it is an instinctively Islamic choice that women make choices in their life.

Q: America has announced a time frame for the war in Afghanistan. Would there be talk on the withdrawal of British troops also? What is the thinking of the Conservative Party in this regard as you are also the Chairperson of the Conservative Party.

A: I think our Prime Minister has said very clearly that there has to be an exit strategy with regards to Afghanistan. He has already given some indication time lines like 2015. And I think there is an acceptance that Britain and other foreign powers are not there to stay permanently in Afghanistan and I’m very delighted that there’s a very clear indication that slowly the military operation there would cease.

Q: And can there be talks with the Taliban also as part of an exit strategy?

A: I think we’ve always said that there are some sections of Taliban with whom discussions can be held.

Q: Do you think that if Tony Blair had not supported America in Iraq and Afghanistan, than the situation which we face today, the threat that Britain, Europe and Pakistan are facing, things would have been different.

A: I don’t know whether I can predict that, but what I can say for sure is that, that war was wrong. I was against the war in Iraq. I, like millions of other people, demonstrated in the streets that we should not go to this war. By profession I’m a lawyer and I had real concerns regarding the legality of the basis of this war according to international law. I was against the war then, and I still feel that we shouldn’t have gone to Iraq at that time.

Q: Do you think with the coming of Conservative Party with people like you part of it, the image of Britain as a lackey of the Americans in the war on terror would change in the Muslim countries? Do you think with these policies of Conservative Party, as you mentioned that you were against the war and being the Chairperson that’s a very strong message, the image of Britain among Muslim countries and especially Pakistan would improve?

A: I think that … I can only comment on my government and my coalition government and our approach to international relations. I can say this for sure that the role that I have is that if there’s a misunderstanding between Pakistan and Britain then that misunderstanding should be removed and the understanding should be improved, and the many years of friendship we have should be made more entrenched.

Q: How can that friendship be made more entrenched when David Cameron goes to India and gives a statement that Pakistan is pursuing a double policy on the war on terror?

A: I think if you’re good friends with a country, then I think and even you would know that, that good friends sometimes tell each other things which they don’t like. But the real test of friendship is that when you are undergoing the most difficult times, who stands shoulder to shoulder with you. And I think when sadly recently Pakistan faced this difficult time of floods, Britain was the first one to respond. We were the first ones to give a response and also the ones to give the biggest response. Not only have we responded ourselves but have also asked the world to stand by Pakistan. And I think if someone has any doubt in his mind about the friendship between Pakistan and Britain, he should look at our response and have confidence that this friendship is strong, it is much stronger than any individual statement.

ON 08 26TH, 2010
Arshad Sharif is the Islamabad Bureau Chief of DawnNews. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dawntvreporter and can be found on Facebook.

Source : http://blog.dawn.com/2010/08/26/qa-with-baroness-warsi/

Islamophobia in Europe

BY TALHA ZAHEER 

A few months ago, I came across a (now infamous) YouTube video about changing demographics of the Muslim population in Europe. The tone was ominous as it warned of the dawning of an Islamicised Europe. In 39 years, the video claimed, France will be an Islamic republic. In 15 years, half the population of the Netherlands will be Muslim. In 2050, Germany, too, will be a Muslim state.

Although I was a bit skeptical about the authenticity of the statistics presented, I basically bought into the video’s premise – that a higher birth rate among Muslim immigrants would cause a marked shift in Europe’s demographics, making it predominantly Muslim. I’ll even admit a part of me swelled with pride at the prospect.

Even though I was aware that a Christian group had produced the video, I do not recall being offended by that initial viewing. But then the rebuttals and clarifications began. A new YouTube video put out by BBC’s Radio 4 titled ‘Muslim Demographics: The Truth’ exposed the alarmist agenda of the first clip by pointing out its liberal use of inaccurate data. And when the BBC news service evaluated the inauthenticity of the statistics, my eyes were fully opened to the strong Islamophobic message of the original video.

The growing problem of Islamophobia in the West is being increasingly documented. The trend is more pronounced in Europe than across the Atlantic, where it is thought that Muslims assimilate more readily. The demographics video may have been an amateur venture, it has coincided with the release of several bestselling books that implore Europeans to wake up and do something to save their culture and their continent. Interestingly, these pseudo-academic attempts have mostly emanated from American authors, apparently discontent with their own incursions into Muslim territories in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One such attempt by Christopher Caldwell titled Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West has received considerable attention in both the American and British media. It is startling to see how reviews of the book from across the pond could be so divergent. While The New York Times claims it is a balanced, thoughtful effort, the Guardian lambasts its unambiguous racial bias.

The contrast between North American and European perceptions of Islam has several explanations. The Europeans are a lot more sensitive and fidgety about the subject, with sentiments in Britain being especially volatile.  The British National Party (BNP), for example, advocates for a return to the good old pre-1948 whites-only days and only falls short of calling whites a superior race. The party actively promotes alarmist views about the spread of Islam in Europe and calls for the deportation of Muslim subjects to their homelands, regardless of whether those subjects – many of whom have been born in Europe – had ever set foot outside the continent.

Parties like the BNP have started gaining impetus throughout Europe with their lightly veiled hatred towards the ‘other’ seeping into passive locals and manifesting itself towards Muslims, effectively making Muslims the Jews of this century. Antediluvian theories advocating social homogeneity have resurfaced as insecure Europeans are manipulated into thinking they must cling on to the last remnants of their dying culture through propagandist videos and literature that wouldn’t be out of place in Nazi Germany.

BNP-type, far-right groups are openly asking to repeal laws that make equal opportunity mandatory, effectively promoting discrimination. Even more alarming is their popularity. In recent elections, the BNP won three seats for the first time.  With such open hostility towards Muslims, albeit in small segments of the population, what measures are European governments taking to allay fears within the Muslim community? The concept of second-rate citizens, after all, runs counter to fundamental western values of equality.

And while the debate within white-Europe rages, what of Muslim European sentiments? What of those who are being forced to decide between a religious and national identity in secular countries such as France? Nikolas Sarkozy, who claims to be a ‘demanding friend of Muslims,’ has proven to have littley sympathy with the concept of pardah. His latest battle is against body- and head-covering swimming attire for women – God forbid a woman should go for a swim in anything other than a bikini.

These strange reactions to Muslims in Europe make me reminisce about my days in primary school in Wales. Once a girl named Catherine called me a ‘Brownie’ in a conversation to a third person that I wasn’t even privy to. Within minutes, I had my whole class rally around me, giving me their support and completely shunning the girl for being racist. At the time, I myself never realised what the big deal was. But my 12-year-old friends were incensed. And if that’s how youngsters from a remote area where a non-white was an anomaly used to react a decade ago, how has the European landscape come to face such a regressive crisis?

On my recent visit to Manchester, I saw mosques with windows smashed in. Previous riots in Bradford, now popularly called ‘Bradistan’ for its large proportion of desis, may not have merely been racial in nature and may also have been fueled by Islamophobia. If Europe does not address these issues quickly and sensitively, this may well be the beginning of a slippery slope. With persecution, discrimination and racism to deal with, just how long will Muslims remain tolerant? How long before they start to flee? And who’s really to blame if they opt for the radical alternative?

Going over the evidence in search of a holistic perspective, I still fail to see how three per cent of the populace could threaten a whole people by their mere existence in the same geographical space. Let’s not forget, it’s not like Muslims forced their entry into mainland Europe. They came as legal immigrants because Europe needed their labor. Through citizenship, they have earned the right to better treatment.

Toronto-based Talha Zaheer blogs about diaspora-related issues for Dawn.com.
He is also the Toronto FC correspondent for Goal.com.

ON 08 18TH, 2009

Source : http://blog.dawn.com/2009/08/18/islamophobia-in-europe/

Pakistan - Diplomatic Corruption

Official given £6,000 to join golf club

By Khawar Ghumman 
Wednesday, 01 Sep, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly was informed on Tuesday that a bureaucrat posted at the country’s consulate general in Manchester had used official funds to secure the membership of a local golf club in 2007. 

The membership cost the public exchequer 6,000 pounds. 

Mr Hamid (his full name was not mentioned at the meeting) not only managed to win the post of commercial secretary, but also got approval for his club membership from then commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan whom he had earlier served as staff officer. 

Documentary evidence placed before the PAC by the audit department revealed that the club membership fee had been paid out of the Export Market Development Fund (EMDF) primarily meant to finance projects and activities aimed at promotion of exports. 

Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood opposed recovery of the amount from the official, although he conceded that using government funds to secure membership of a golf club was unprecedented. “He is a good officer and I don’t think he would be able to pay this amount,” he said. 

The secretary’s statement appeared to be in contradiction of the stance he had taken at a departmental accounts committee meeting in May when he said the amount should be recovered. 

Mr Hamid is about to complete his three-year term in Manchester. 

MNA Yasmin Rehman, who was presiding over the meeting in the absence of PAC chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, asked the secretary to make the recovery as soon as possible. 

Khwaja Asif of the PML-N said: “The money should be recovered from the minister who endorsed the expenditure.” 

Members of the committee unanimously called for recovering the amount. 

During scrutiny of the accounts of the commerce ministry of 2008-9, audit officials also discussed wasteful expenditures of around Rs50 million by the finance ministry in 2007-8 on conducting several studies for promoting exports. They said the studies had been conducted in a highly suspicious manner; open bidding had not been held for selecting consultant firms and the then commerce secretary had made payments in contravention of his financial powers. 

Mr Zafar Mahmood said the expenditures had been approved by the then commerce secretary, Tanvir Ali Agha, who is currently the Auditor General of Pakistan. 

The PAC said the ministry should hold another meeting of the departmental accounts committee to determine whether the objectives of the studies had been achieved. 

Another case of waste discussed at the meeting was an unauthorised expenditure of Rs2.406 million on mobile phones calls. The chief executive of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan exceeded his approved ceiling. Most of the calls took place during foreign visits by the official. The committee ordered recovery of the amount. 

When contacted, Mr Humayun Khan confirmed Mr Hamid’s foreign posting during his stint as commerce minister. “Yes, I also approved payment of 6,000 pounds for his golf club membership fee and that was absolutely within my purview,” Mr Khan said in reply to a question. 

Source : http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/official-given-6,000-to-join-golf-club-190

The worst of times

BY SAIMA SHAKIL HUSSAIN ON 08 30TH, 2010

To paraphrase Charles Dickens’ opening line in A Tale of Two Cities quite heavily, this is the absolute worst of times –  full stop. There is no qualifying ‘best of times,’ no ‘age of wisdom,’ no ‘epoch of belief,’ ‘season of Light or ‘spring of hope.’ In fact, this is the ultimate pits of times. There is no other way to say it. It’s quite simply a very, very bad time all around.

Apart from causing millions to become internally displaced, the flood water has exposed the gaping trust deficit that exists both within the country and outside of it. International donors are hesitant, not sure if the funds and goods that they do contribute will end up with those who deserve them. It is difficult to blame them when Pakistanis themselves, rather than depending on the federal or provincial governments to do anything, seem to have devised a sort of ad-hoc adopt-a-village programme whereby private citizens and student groups are gathering goods and delivering them to the victims themselves. Or least to the ones they are able to reach.

And while all this is going on in the homeland, in a far away land, New York City to be precise, the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ controversy is in full swing. The fact that the proposed project is not a mosque but rather a cultural centre, and is to be built on private property a few blocks away from that hallowed ground is being ignored. Indeed, the term ‘Islam Free Zone’ is being used in association with lower Manhattan.

Choosing to downplay the facts that an estimated 60 Muslims also died in the attacks and that there had existed a Muslim prayer hall inside the fallen World Trade Centre, rabid right-wingers have whipped up anti-Muslim sentiment to the extent that even President Obama felt pressured to temper the supporting comments he had made at the annual White House iftaar a day earlier.

The demonisation of Islam has reached such a feverish pitch that American Muslim leaders have become markedly anxious that this year Eid ul-Fitr will fall around September 11. They are concerned that those Americans who are ignorant about Islam – sadly they number very many – will choose to interpret it as a celebration of the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Finding the right balance between showing respect for the victims and not giving into fear is the very tough task ahead for America’s Muslim communities.

While contemplating these turbulent times, I could not help but think of the trials faced by the first Muslim community in Madinah. I was especially reminded of the following passage from Martin Lings’ monumental workMuhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (1983) which gives a detailed account of the incredible odds that faced the small and impoverished band of believers who struggled to build a new life while also defending themselves against their many enemies:

“Before the Prophet (peace be upon him) set out [for the Battle of Khaybar], one of the men of Awas known as Abu Abs came to him with a problem. He had a camel to ride, but his clothes were in rags and he had no means for procuring any provisions to take on the march and nothing to leave for the upkeep of his family, let alone buying himself a new garment. There were many others in similar circumstances, though this was an extreme case. But much had been spent on the Pilgrimage, and everything that had been gained so far in the way of spoil was outweighed by the increasing number of poverty-stricken converts who came to Madinah from every direction.

The Prophet gave Abu Abs a fine long cloak, all that was available for the moment; but on the march, a day or two later, he noticed that he had on a much poorer cloak and he asked him: ‘Where is the cloak I gave thee?’ ‘I sold it for eight dirhams said Abu Abs. ‘Then I bought two dirhams worth of dates as provision for myself, ad I left two dirhams from my family to live on, and bought a cloak for four dirhams.’ The Prophet laughed and said: ‘O father of Abs, thou and thy companions are poor indeed. But by Him in whose hand is my soul, if ye keep safe and live yet a little while, ye shall have abundance of provisions and leave abundantly for your families. Ye shall abound in dirhams and in slaves; and it will not be good for you!’”

Dr Martin Lings (1909-2005), or Abu Bakr Siraj Uddin as he was also known, earned acclaim throughout the Muslim world for his book which was proclaimed to be the ‘best biography of the prophet in English’ at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad.

Combining simplicity with grandeur, he has narrated events from the Prophet’s life that are familiar to many, but what make his telling of them stand apart are the Arabic sources of the eighth and ninth centuries – Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa’ad and Al-Waqidi – whom he has quoted extensively.

Thus from the men and women who heard the Prophet speak and witnessed for themselves the events of his life the reader learns of the monumental challenges he and his followers faced time and again. In a society that was staunchly tribal and allegiance to lineage was deeply entrenched, they emigrated from their ancestral homeland – something had never been imagined before – and laid the foundations of an egalitarian society in a peaceful oasis.

That our society today is neither peaceful nor egalitarian while a sizable number ‘abound in dirhams’ bears witness to the prophecy which was made so long ago.

Saima Shakil Hussain is the editor of Dawn’s ‘Books & Authors’ magazine.

Source : http://blog.dawn.com/2010/08/30/the-worst-of-times/

How News is Created and Shared

What the Steven Slater Story Says about How News is Created and Shared

Posted by Steve Myers at 12:57 PM on Aug. 23, 2010

When Flight 1052 went wheels-up on Steven Slater's (presumably) last flight with JetBlue, he was just a man. Hours after he took the evacuation slide, he was a legend. 

How we got to this point -- in which this JetBlue flight attendant has 213,000 fans on Facebook, a Hollywood agentand perhaps a reality TV show -- tells us some things about how the media, social media, the Web and the public amplify, consume and share the news.

The buzz around Steven Slater stemmed from the initial story of him blowing his cool after being wronged by a passenger. Coverage quickly shifted from the event itself, to his elevation to instant hero, to what that popularity means. 

Meanwhile, over the next few days, as the story crested, some news outlets tried to see whether the facts supported the picture of Slater as a modern folk hero. Those facts may yet emerge; as with many stories that blow up so quickly, the facts have a hard time catching up to the legend. 

Popularity is a self-fulfilling news story.

This was one of those stories that you want to share as soon as you hear it. That popularity fueled more stories, which added to the buzz, which in turn fueled more coverage.

Slater made his dramatic exit -- entrance, really -- on August 9. The initial reports were all pretty similar, describing an altercation between a rude passenger and Slater after the plane landed, which put him over the edge. Slater was seen as both victim and the hero.

People don't just talk about the news now, they create in response to it. So they created Facebook pages, wrote parody songs, and set up sites to sell T-shirts and solicit fantastic quitting stories. 

Soon enough, the coverage shifted from what had happened to how popular Slater was becoming. And the coverage increased. According to Google Trends, media coverage trailed search traffic for "Steven Slater," with search traffic peaking on Aug. 11 and news coverage peaking on Aug. 12.

To some extent, popularity has always been a measure of newsworthiness. What's different is that popularity is out in the open and easy to measure. It's hard to know how many people are talking about a story on the phone or e-mailing links; it's easy to see how many people "like" a Facebook page.

And companies can do sentiment analysis on all the discussion online; The New York Time cited Zeta Buzz, which noted that online comments about Slater were 93 percent positive. 

Any of these things can be the hook for a follow-up story, even if they're not particularly meaningful. Sure, someone setting up a site to sell some T-shirts indicates some measure of popularity, but who's buying? 

At one point, a news story noted that four people had joined a "Steven Slater for president" group on Facebook and that 30 people had joined a legal defense fund group. (Both have more members now.) In comparison, there are 88 members of a Facebook group to organize a convention of people named Phil Campbell (or Phyllis, Philippe or any other variation) in the town of Phil Campbell, Ala. Which is more newsworthy?

The media is the meta.

A few cracks appeared in the initial account the day after the incident, but by then, much of the coverage was one step removed from what happened on the plane, focusing on Slater's popularity.

And then it shifted again, to an examination of how this gay flight attendant in New York became a hero of the working man. What did our response mean about our culture, aboutthe recession, about air travel, about how we admire scofflaws? A USA Today story hit many of these themes:

"That a flight attendant has become an instant folk hero for allegedly telling off a passenger and abandoning his duties speaks not just to the frustration many people feel about a travel experience that has become riddled with inconvenience and rudeness. It also casts a spotlight on a broader anger felt by many workers who are fed up with jobs in which pay raises, if they exist at all, are smaller or less frequent than they were a few years ago and with the threat of layoffs looming constantly, some workplace specialists say."

Some of these stories relied on experts and university professors, who are often willing to engage in high-level discussion of an event. As a journalist, I'm not immune to this, so I spoke with Todd Gitlin, a professor at Columbia University in New York, who had already been quoted in a New York Times story. 

"The fact that the story took off in the form it did, with weak sourcing," he said, "to me says something about the strength of the fantasy that he was in a sense conscripted into enacting as a character in our collective life."

I couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, I needed him to say it so I didn't have to.

Journalists gravitate to such stories; they enable us to use the events at hand to craft a view of the world around us. Slate's Jack Shafer loves to expose "bogus trend stories," those thinly reported stories that rely on anecdotal evidence. When presented with a story like Steven Slater, we need just one really, really good anecdote.

Done well, such "meta" stories help us understand the world around us, why some things matter and others don't. Done poorly, they're creative writing exercises, with quotations by real people offering a flavoring of journalism.

This is what sparked Howard Kurtz' mini-tirade at the end of his "Reliable Sources" show on Aug. 15. "News outlets are taking a colorful incident," he said, "and inflating it into a cosmic, cultural protest because that gives them an excuse to keep pumping it up."

Legend travels faster than facts.

While much of the media used this incident as a hook to write about airline travel, politeness or folk heroes, some local media treated this as a hard news story. The New York Daily News was one of the few. 

"We covered this as if we were doing an investigation," said Daily News reporter Richard Schapiro, who started working on the story from the second day. "We were really going at it as, 'What actually happened on this plane?' "(Novel, isn't it?)

Reporters started looking for passengers who could corroborate Slater's story. They got the plane's passenger manifest and were able to reach about 40 of the 100 passengers. 

Schapiro described a winding path of reporting that at firstseemed to contradict Slater's story and later appeared to confirm that something indeed set Slater off on that plane.

The facts are more complicated than what most of us heard. According to some passengers, Slater already had a cut on his head when they boarded the plane in Pittsburgh, and he struck people as unhinged during the pre-flight safety routine and the flight. 

But another passenger told Schapiro that he was one of the first people on the plane, and Slater was uninjured. Moreover, he said he heard (but didn't see) an argument of some kind that involved a woman who wanted to put an oversized bag in an overhead compartment.

Still, there are some uncertainties. Schapiro said he hasn't been able to find this phantom passenger who didn't want to check her bag. He hoped that she would speak up when other passengers described Slater's bizarre behavior and sentiment seemed to turn against him, but that hasn't happened.

These days, who has time to substantiate the narrative?

While it would seem natural to spend the time reporting this story out, these days it's not a given. It made sense for New York media, for whom this was a sensational, local story. (In fairness, not all of the local coverage was exactly substantive.)

A reporter or editor, Gitlin said, has to decide "how many working minutes are available to run after this, trying to catch this and stuff it back in its factual container as opposed to moving on, doing something else."

In some cases a reporter or a news organization is rewarded by doggedly pursuing a story that runs counter to the grain of the media at large. Gitlin noted, for instance, thatMcClatchy's Washington bureau did not fall for the Bush administration's arguments that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. 

Yet no matter what you think of flight attendants, Steven Slater is no Saddam. And so when the spotlight shines elsewhere, there often isn't much incentive to follow up on such stories.

Slater's story shows how similar journalists are to those who read and watch their stories. We love unexpected results, compelling characters and searing irony. If we're biased for anything, we're biased for a good story, like people at a ballpark root for a home run. 

That doesn't absolve our duty to verify and to report out the story. It doesn't give us a pass when we extract five rash minutes from one man's life to make sweeping conclusions about the nature of life in our democracy. But it does show that we're all part of the same system of talking, sharing and reacting.

"There's a place for stories that are quirky," Gitlin said, "but they should still be true -- as true as one could make them."

That's exactly what I was thinking.

CORRECTION: Richard Schapiro's name was misspelled in the original version of this story.

Source : http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=136&aid=189218

Emmy Awards 2010 - Best Supporting Actress

British actress wins Emmy Award

30.08.10

It was left to Archie Panjabi to fly the flag for British acting talent at this year's Emmy Awards.

The London-born actress picked up best supporting actress for her role in the The Good Wife as the US honoured stars of the small screen at a lavish LA ceremony.

But elsewhere it was disappointment for thespians hailing from this side of the pond.

Michael Sheen, Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench were among the high profile nominees who failed to take to the stage and pick up a coveted gong.

Panjabi, who made her name in British hit films East is East and Bend It Like Beckham, won an Emmy for her role as a law firm's in-house private investigator in her hit TV show.

The 38-year-old triumphed over fellow The Good Wife actress Christine Baranski and Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss.

Sheen was nominated for best actor in a miniseries or TV movie for The Special Relationship, a film in which he reprised his role as Tony Blair.

But he lost out to acting great Al Pacino, who won a rare TV gong for You Don't Know Jack. Sir Ian also missed out to Pacino in the category.

Maggie Smith and Dame Judi were both nominated in the female equivalent section. But they lost out as Claire Danes who was given the nod for her performance in Temple Grandin.

Hugh Laurie missed out yet again on an Emmy. The comedian turned actor went home empty handed as Bryan Cranston took the title of outstanding actor in a drama for his performance in Breaking Bad.

Source : http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23872159-british-actress-wins-emmy-award.do

Amjad Khan to leave Kent

27.08.10

Fast bowler Amjad Khan will leave Kent when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Leaving: Amjad Khan has so far taken 248 wickets in first-class cricket

The 29-year-old Copenhagen-born player burst onto the county scene in his first full season with Kent in 2002, claiming 63 wickets, and made his Test debut for England against West Indieslast year.

Kent chief executive Jamie Clifford said: "Amjad has been with the club for nine seasons and we are very sorry to see him leave. These are financially difficult times for the club and sadly we are not currently in a position to make Amjad a meaningful offer.

"This has been a very hard decision; however we believe that it is the right one given the financial context. I am sure the club's members and supporters will join me in thanking Amjad for all his efforts and wish him the very best as he moves on."

Khan, who has so far taken 248 wickets in first-class cricket, said: "I am sorry to be leaving having been with the club since 2002. Ideally I would have liked to have continued my career with Kent but it is not to be.

"I sympathise with Kent's off-field financial pressures and know that that the key people wanted me to stay. I look forward to new challenges with renewed vigour and believe I have what it takes to put myself back in the England frame."

Source : http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/cricket/article-23871549-amjad-khan-to-leave-kent.do

London gears up for two-wheeled revolution

Alice Ritchie

July 30, 2010

The sprawling, congested city of London speeds towards a greener, nimbler future Friday with the launch of a new bike hire scheme aimed at kick-starting a cycling revolution ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

Commuters and tourists infuriated by heavy traffic and often overcrowded, unreliable public transport finally have a two-wheeled alternative, similar to schemes already in place in Paris, Shanghai and dozens of cities worldwide.

From Friday, they can pick up one of 6,000 bicycles from 400 docking stations in central London -- including at the British Museum and Buckingham Palace -- then pedal to their destination and drop it off, all for a small fee.

At least that's the plan. In Paris, a similar scheme is hugely popular but has also been marred by vandalism and theft, with organisers having to replace the entire bike fleet just two years after its launch.

Introduced by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, a keen cyclist himself, the project is intended to boost the number of bicycle journeys ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in the capital.

"It's part of a programme of things that are going to change the urban landscape, what it's like to live in and move around in London," Johnson told reporters earlier this month.

"In the run-up to the Olympics, it's part of our vision of a cleaner, greener, safer city, where you have a cycling revolution."

The London 2012 organisers want 100 percent of the spectators attending the Games to arrive having taken public transport, walked or cycled, and are investing heavily in the subway network and trains to make it happen.

A congestion charge introduced in 2003 has helped ease the pressure on city roads, but International Olympic Committee official Denis Oswald warned this month that despite progress in preparations so far, "traffic is an issue".

Introduced alongside the new cycle scheme will be a spider-like network of "superhighways" to carry cyclists safely in and out of central London from the suburbs. The route that will pass the Olympic site is due to open next year.

The programme has been dubbed the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme after its main sponsor, but organisers hope the city's residents will come up with something a little more imaginative when it gets going.

More than 10,000 people had signed up for a subscription to the bike hire scheme before it went live, and the mayor's transport advisor, Kulveer Ranger, told AFP: "We think the scheme is going to be very popular."

The mayor wants to increase the percentage of journeys made by bicycle in the city from the current level of about two percent to five percent, and cycle campaigner Tom Bogdanovicz said this was easily achievable.

"There is an appetite out there, it's just the conditions need to be right," Bogdanovicz, campaigns manager at the London Cycle Campaign, told AFP.

Surveys have suggested a third of Londoners would like to try cycling, he said, adding that they just needed a push -- the new scheme was "a great step".

Customers can chose from either a daily, weekly or monthly subscription, costing one pound (1.5 US dollars, 1.1 euros), five pounds or 45 pounds respectively, and the first 30 minutes of any journey they make is free.

Thereafter they will be charged on a rapidly increasing scale, while they must leave a deposit in case they do not return the bike or they leave it damaged -- a problem that has hit the Paris scheme.

Advertising giant JCDecaux, which runs the Paris scheme along with more than 60 across the world, was forced to replace 16,000 bicycles after they were returned with twisted handlebars, torn baskets and crushed wheels.

Another 8,000 disappeared, some of them turning up in Eastern Europe.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

Source : http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/london-gears-up-for-twowheeled-revolution-20100730-10yar.html