Whistling in the dark
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ghazi Salahuddin
Now that our cricket team has marched into the final of World Twenty20, after that invigorating victory against South Africa on Thursday night, we can cheer ourselves up, at least for some time. Yes, the final this evening can either greatly heighten or somewhat erase this feeling. But lest us rejoice in what we have at this time. There is this popular sense of delight and a touch of patriotic pride in this victory after consistent setbacks in the sports arena. This is what national spectator sport can do to the people's mood.
Skipper Younis Khan surely had this sense of what is happening to us when he said that he wanted to win the final for the team, the nation and "the millions suffering back at home, especially in the northern areas where I'm from. There are fights going on on a daily basis and I believe that winning the trophy will bring some smiles on their faces for a change". And they had time to smile when we won the semi-final.
As a Karachiite, it would be difficult for me to shake off the daunting experience of the long electricity blackout that began on Wednesday evening. Imagine if this bolt from the blue had struck a day later and millions of people in the city and other parts of Sindh would not be able to turn their television sets on. As it is, the blackout was a major event in the life of a city that has a history of violent disruptions. Many, many years later, they will tell their children or grandchildren about how it was when the lights went out in the heat of June. Like the response to a cricket triumph, it was a collective experience and a subject for endless discussion.
It would seem that frequent load-shedding and power breakdowns was a kind of net-practice for the long blackout of Wednesday-Thursday. Initially, most of us thought that it was a matter of routine and the power would return in an hour or so. Gradually, as we descended deeper into a summer night, it became necessary to deal with the situation in our own separate ways. At one level, it was an equaliser because all areas and communities were equally affected. Still, the rich and the privileged cannot be brought down to the common man's level because they had their generators and UPS systems and open spaces within their houses.
When a calamity of such large proportions strikes, there are bound to an entire range of human stories and incidents. There are bound to be extensive sufferings and dislocations in the lives of the ordinary people. Naturally, there was considerable bafflement about what had happened and whether it was a conspiracy of some kind or if it could lead to widespread disorder.
I have noted before in this space that people are becoming more and more liable to resorting to violent behaviour and to random protests, as things seem to fall apart. But the long blackout passed away without any notable upheaval. This is something that needs to be studied by our social scientists. Is it that our people have been taught to suffer and to bear their sufferings rather stoically?
To find some perspective, I thought of famous blackouts in New York City. Interestingly, New York stands out in this context. There was that blackout in July 1977 which resulted in city-wide looting and other disorder. But an earlier blackout, in 1965, was not so bad. However, the 1977 blackout was seen as one of the darkest hours in New York, until September 11, 2001. We have books and even a horror movie on that blackout. One recent music video is set in the night of that blackout. Shirts were made with the slogan: "I survived the blackout".
But New York has also experienced a "good" blackout and it happened in August 2003, two years after 9/11. This time, there was no panic and the officials praised the 'New York spirit'. New Yorkers took the initiative to help the needy and there were stories of university professors directing traffic. This means that a blackout can be a very instructive experience in terms of promoting civic sense and collaboration. Obviously, blackouts give us time to reflect on the state of affairs.
I was surprised to learn that there is a Blackout History Project at George Mason University in the States and its director described the power outages – the American expression for a blackout – as pivotal times in New York City. Would that be same for Karachi? As I have said, people will always remember that long night and driving around after midnight, I saw people sleeping on the pavements and on roads. There were pictures of how they came out to sleep on streets, though the women had to be left behind in their airless abodes.
A friend has shared with me some Facebook comments that have expectedly been made in a lighter vein. Indeed, the ability to whistle in the dark can be therapeutic to some extent. So, when someone is off to Paris, he is asked: "Do they have bijlee there? 'cause we don't". Or the plaint: 'KESC hai hai !!!'. One comment: 'Can someone blame Taliban, the Indians or the Jews for the KESC failure?' Said one: 'Can't believe all of Karachi is without electricity. That's 16 million very annoyed people'. Someone is "worried for his generator. I don't think she is supposed to put in twelve hour workdays". And so on.
As an aside, one may look at how people from different locations can come together in a place that is virtual. Social networking is increasingly playing a role in shaping opinions and providing opportunities to individuals to connect with collective movements or experiences. Look at how the young Iranians are using internet and social network sites to mobilise their agitation against the result of the presidential election.
Talking of Iran, I feel that the story that is taking shape in Tehran deserves the attention of the entire world. Personally, I am trying to follow it in detail. But one can hardly be distracted from the domestic scene. Literally and figuratively, we are passing through dark times. Our war against the extremists and its very disturbing consequences is also a kind of blackout and we do not know how long would it last. All we can do is to try to bear it with as much equanimity as we can muster.
Hence, it would be good to win the final today. Also, the blackout that extended in some cases to nearly 20 hours has also left us with some reassuring thoughts about the tolerance level of our people. Still, there is little hope that our rulers and our institutions can put their act together and win their matches.
