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Jewish Journal

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December 25, 2012

Karachi’s shrinking parks

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Is Featured?, Israel, Mobile, Mobile Sections, Mobile-Homepage, Multimedia, News /

My three nephews, aged 1.4, 3 and 5 years, are on school break. Their mother is going out of her mind. “I’ve got to get them out into a green space to run around till they drop,” she said. And then, before I could even perish the thought, she added in a stiff voice: “I don’t want to take them to a mall.”

I started thinking, green spaces, green spaces, green spaces in Karachi. There is a beautiful small park near my house, in fact just a stone’s throw from Benazir Bhutto’s residence, 70 Clifton. I had noticed that its boundary wall had been pulled down and some kind of reconstruction was going on. But every time I passed I couldn’t help but think it was so much better just borderless. A boundary wall and gate deterred people from thinking of entering. And it seemed closed all the time. With nothing between it and the pavement, it was just a lush green expanse. I decided I couldn’t take them there with all the construction material spilling over.

A few weeks ago a non-profit in Karachi that works to save its environment, Shehri-CBE, published an 11kg two-volume exhaustive listing of Karachi’s parks and how they have been taken over the land mafia. Take the example of Huzuri Bagh (bagh being garden), which was six acres in the late 1960s.

Satellite images prove how it was completely constructed over by 2010. “Can you imagine the Central Park in New York allowing citizens build houses over it?” asked Shehri’s Roland deSouza at the launch of the book which was covered by The Express Tribune reporter Rabia Ali on my desk.

To give you an idea of how parks have shrunk I’ll give you the example of the neighbourhood of North Nazimabad that is one of Karachi’s few well-planned schemes, dating to 1953. Five decades have passed but the proportion of parks to layout has not gone up in line with the population growth. It has dropped from 4.48% to 4.26%. This area was meant to accommodate a population of 71,244 people but now has 0.2 million people. (Classification and Standardization of Parks North Nazimabad Town – Karachi, Pakistan in the Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 3(2): 853-865, 2009).

I was in London over the summer with my sister and she kept exclaiming in amazement how there was a park every two blocks or so. There was no entry fee either. And they were kept clean and green by municipal staff.

But it would be unfair not to mention one park in Karachi. Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim near the sea front and Lady Lloyd Pier in Karachi is still a good space. It is spread over 130 acres and is beautifully landscaped but every time I’ve gone there it has felt kind of fake. I suppose I like rough, overgrown and natural greenery. Still, this park is amazing for the inner city kids and large families who can’t afford to pay to enter other entertainment spaces like the cinema. They often head there in the hot summer nights to catch a bit of the sea breeze. It’s a safe space and only families or couples are allowed to enter, no stags. But it’s not enough.

Neighbourhood parks just don’t have enough for children. They are not well maintained and in some cases have been taken over by drug users, rag pickers and the homeless.

But I had to take my nephews somewhere. A little research revealed the University of Karachi botanical garden. My sister’s face lit up. Biscuits were packed, water bottles filled and mosquito repellent was applied. The botanical garden is open for vistiors 4pm to 7pm Mondays and Thursdays. It is located off university road just after NED university and has a gate of its own. There isn’t much parking space, but as we discovered, not a lot of people actually go there. Aside from one decent greenhouse, the rest of the botanical garden was quite disappointing. A broken air conditioner wheezed in the alpine house where a few weeds straggled. I couldn’t find the pond the man at the gate had pointed to vaguely.

Still, my nephews had a good romp. They rolled down the hill, which amused them to no end. They had to be wrenched away from the cactus. They drew a few fronds much to the delight of their mother. Next we plan to take them to Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum, which is set in a huge space in the center of the city. Safari Park offers a train ride to a zoo enclosure. The Karachi Zoo is also on the list. There might not be enough out there but for whatever it is worth, we’re going to hit them all.

Karachi’s shrinking parks Read More »

What’s the Strategy?

Leave a Comment / Israel, Mobile, Mobile Sections, News, Opinion, Worldwide /
A couple of years ago a private conversation between then French President Nicholas Sarkozy and President Obama was caught on a live mike. Sarkozy said I can't bare Netanyahu, he's such a liar.” Obama responded: “You're fed up with him but I have to deal with him more than you do.”
 
After the latest stunt one wonders how anyone can disagree with the President's irritation.  Recall that the Prime Minister was widely perceived in Israel and the United States as overstepping the normal propriety of neutrality in a Presidential election. He pressed for a meeting with President Obama on his United Nations visit in September to get a commitment on American action in Iran. Obama wisely refused to take the meeting. 
 
Why would anyone want an American commitment to bomb Iran and perhaps to go to war to be made in a political context on the eve of the election with the Jewish vote supposedly at stake in the swing states of Florida and Ohio?
 
Recall also that in the aftermath of the election, the President backed Israel to the hilt on its battle in Gaza clearly defending Israel's right to defend its citizens attack rocket attack – justifiably so, properly so. Recall that it was Obama that approved US economic support for the Iron Dome, which proved its value during the recent attacks on Israel, after the Bush administration had not been as forthcoming. The President and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton were essential to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and US Special Forces have been placed in the Sinai to keep quiet on the border between Israel and Egypt and perhaps to constrain Hamas.
 
The administration worked hard to oppose the overwhelming vote to give Palestine the status of an observer state in the United States and was certain to veto another Palestinian effort to gain Security Council recognition of the Palestinian State.
 
On the horizon, seemingly looms an existential threat to Israel of an Iranian nuclear bomb. Though Israel talks of attacking Iran, the more it talks about such an attack, the more clear it becomes that Israel does not want to take military action alone and would prefer that the United States with its greater capability would lead the attack.
 
And the Obama administration may be called upon to intervene in the civil war – perhaps we should call it a genocide – in Syria if the Assad resorts to using chemical weapons on his enemies, domestic or foreign. The US will be essential to easing Assad out of office as the discussions between the UN representative, the US Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister of Russia seem to indicate.
 
So why spit in the eye of the President and announce retaliation against Mahmoud Abbas by approving settlements connecting Ariel and Jerusalem and thus dividing the West Bank?
 
I know the domestic considerations. Palestinians were cheering the establishment of a their state – as if that was the outcome of the UN action. Hamas is cheering its “victory” in Gaza – one wishes them many more such victories. 
 
And many Israelis would have preferred a ground war in Gaza to defeat Hamas once and for all. They were expressing sentiments of the heart not of the mind. IDF leadership and the Defense Minister have said time and again that the Gaza problem cannot be solved militarily, at least not without a political strategy, of which there is none.
 
So after working hard to protect Israel's interest and to defend Israel in the international community, the Israeli Prime Minister thumbs his nose at the reelected President and not only expands settlements but moves into the E1 sector. Were these plans actually to materialize, at least according to some informed sources, they would divide the West Bank and make a contiguous Palestinian State impossible.
 
Netanyahu had not only alienated the President but European leaders as well. His news conference in Germany was sidetracked into a defense of settlement while the most that the German Chancellor could say was that “we agreed to disagree.” It is not exactly wise to alienate Europe further if action is needed on Iran – intensifying sanctions, tacitly supporting the military action. [As an aside, one wonders why the American Jewish community has not been more vocal in support of the Administration's red line on the use of chemical warfare. There is a strange silence on Syria.]
 
Netanyahu is a masterful tactician, but one wonders what is his strategy going forward, especially if he needs the President's good will for actions – diplomatic, political and potentially military against Iran?
 
If Iran is an existential threat to Israel, the strategy of an Israeli Prime Minister – any Israeli Prime Minister — should be to gather international support against Iran. As one looks at current actions, it seems that the only strategy that this Prime Minister has is his own reelection. 

What’s the Strategy? Read More »

A meditation in memory of the twenty children who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary

Leave a Comment / Mobile, Mobile Sections, News, United States /

The round rosy face of the child is lit by the glow of candles on a birthday cake. The cake is enrobed in butter-cream frosting, the name of the child scrolled in colorful piping. The candles make a crown, with six or seven sparking points. The flames perform brilliant acrobatics, their final performance, on tiny black pedestals. They somersault, pirouette and march-in-place before the child.

The child’s eyes are sequined with happiness, swimming with joy. The air is powdered with sugar. The flames make their final resplendent turns, with ribbons of light and pinches of glitter. The child takes a healthy chestful of sweet breath. Like a wind lifting a tent off the tundra, the deep intake of breath stirs and picks up the innermost wish of the child. The child exhales in a gust. The wish is released from the lamp of the child’s lungs like a genie. The flames poof into ether and applause.

Happy birthday.

The sweet breath that captured the innermost wish weaves with the smoke and the candied air. It is swept up into the winds of the planet to join the international stock of terrestrial atmosphere, to join the natural and necessary breaths of every creature that ever sighed, in an eternal dance of living breath.

Twenty children’s birthday breaths, ballerinas of the air, clothed in star jasmine and hyacinth, lavender and soap bubbles, citrus and breakfast sizzling on the stove, hay and horses, incense and offerings.

Breath-of-Charlotte, breath-of-Daniel, breath-of-Olivia, swaying with the sound waves of distant sobbing, recent laughter, tender lullabies, mother’s hair, father’s shirt.

Breath-of-Josephine, breath-of-James, breath-of-Grace. Waltzing and whirling high above and apart from our imagined distinctions, with the sacred warbling from citadels and minarets, magical mantras, wind chimes and soothing bells.

Ana-breath, Dylan-breath, breath-of-Madeleine. Breaths that blew out six candles or seven join the faint current of every butterfly wing, flurry of snowflake, blast of warmth from the heating vent.

Breath-of-Catherine, breath-of-Jesse, breath-of-Emilie, breath-of-Chase. We breathe this moment in and out the same thousands of nitrogen molecules that were in the deep breath of their birthday wishes, that were in the deep breath of your great great grandmother, and the breath of a child generations from now inhaling before a birthday cake, and the breath of great creatures of the distant past whom we’ve never known.

Breath-of-Jack, breath-of-Noah, breath-of-Caroline, breath of Allison. Air is the ultimate intimacy. All of us drinking from the same bottomless cup. Through our breath we blend seamlessly with past and future souls.

Jessica-breath, Avielle-breath, breath-of-Benjamin. The transcendent air, bridging time and space and innermost wish and day of birth and birthday, and moment of death and final sharp intake of breath, and gentle exhale.

Twenty first breaths, breath gathered into a blazingly bright wail of pronouncement, I am here. Twenty breaths harnessed to form words, formulate ideas, share newfound wisdoms, sing.

Twenty last breaths, their final resplendent turns, with ribbons of light and pinches of glitter, on a fiery chariot of birthday candles, names scrolled in colorful piping, twenty breaths caught in a fragrant updraft, rolling lightly like tumbleweed, swept up into the winds of the planet, our eyes are sequined with tears, swimming with disbelief. Our tears decorate their song, like crystals on the bodice of a wedding gown. Our tears are given to the clouds for rain. Our tears are given to the sky for stars. Our tears are given to the mist for purity.

Twenty birthday wishes, dewy and glistening with our bewilderment, they assemble themselves, a million butterfly wings, into a soft, cottony sleigh. Breath-of-stars, breath-of-twilight, breath-of-bedtime story, winged letters writing new-ancient constellations across the night sky. The round rosy face of the child who took our breath away, and breathed life into clay. Breath-of-drawing pad, breath-of-treehouse, breath-of-biking fast as a whip down the street of a sunny cul-de-sac.

We who breathe, we whose souls are eternity’s breath, passing from one to another the pregnant air, buoyant with memory, vibrating with harmony, textured with imprint, laced with dreaming, out of me and into you, out of you and into the child, out of the child and into my ancestors and your descendents, and bird and lion and tree, unbound by illness, death and history, the din of shattered hearts, the wail of mourners, the silent stun of children whose friends are gone, whose teachers are gone.

The child exhales in a gust.

The wish is released from the lamp of the child’s lungs like a genie. The flames poof into ether and applause. The sweet breath that captured the innermost wish is swept up into the winds of the planet, to join the natural and necessary breaths of every creature that ever sighed — breath of air, breath of earth, breath of air — in an eternal dance of living breath.

A meditation in memory of the twenty children who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary Read More »

‘Odd Couple’ actor Jack Klugman dies

Leave a Comment / Hollywood /

Actor Jack Klugman, who made up the sloppy half of the popular “Odd Couple,” has died.

Klugman, who also starred in the original film version of “12 Angry Men,” died Monday at his home in Northridge, Calif.

Klugman won two Emmy awards for his portrayal of sloppy and careless New York sportswriter Oscar Madison. He went on to star in the television series Quincy, M.E., in which he played a medical examiner.

The other half of the Odd Couple, Tony Randall, who portrayed the finicky photographer Felix Unger, died in 2004 at the age of 84.

Klugman also performed in the original Broadway production of The Odd Couple as a replacement for Walter Matthau.

‘Odd Couple’ actor Jack Klugman dies Read More »

Mom’s the Word

Leave a Comment / Hollywood /

By Michael Welch

A little over 33 years ago I was introduced to a woman who would change my life.  This precipitated changing the lives of those around me as well. I wouldn’t normally dedicate an entire blog to someone, but this is a soul that’s worth sharing with everyone.

To clarify, some of the most influential people in my life have saved countries, discovered democracy, enforced equality, and deep-fried the Twinkie. (G-d bless you hostess: Whatever you need from us we will group together to assure the continued existence of that doughy flavored goodness.) Like many others, those who impact our lives give meaning and reason to stand up and fight, to invoke our constitution at the expense of being cast away. This particular individual has done exactly that. Her life purpose begins and ends with putting others first. Her name is not as prominent as Kennedy, Lincoln, or Albright. She never wanted it to be; rather her concern was for others to be recognized for who they are. This woman always shied away from credit, and the most shocking of all was that there was never any expectation of wanting anything in return. All that she asks is that you see what she sees.

Mom’s the Word Read More »

All I Want for Christmas Is Good Jewish Pop-Rock

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Entertainment, Hollywood, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.

At a recent trip to Nashville, I walked into a Christian mega-store called Lifeways across the street from my hotel. What better way to get a taste of Southern culture?

I was floored by the beautiful, impecabble floor filled with Christian books, music, movies, and ritual items. There were more coloring books for kids on the Hebrew Bible here than at all Judaica stores in Pico/Robertson combined. A quarter of the store consisted of self-help books on how to live a better life based on Christian principles. There were a few books in support of Israel.

Music took up a major section of the store, and since I was in Nashville to get in touch with the songwriter in me, I listened to the sample of a singer who seemed to be a Christian rock star: Matthew West.

It was love at first listen. With his powerful voice, West sometimes sings of Jesus, the sticking point for any Jew, but most of the songs on his album “Into the Light” are simply inspirational pop-rock songs about overcoming the travails of life, seeing the light (nevermind the inference to Christian salvation), and making this world a better place. I don’t think Judaism has any real musical equivalent of someone like West, unless there are some Israeli artists I don’t know about. Our big “Jewish” hits are Adam Sandler’s Chanukkah song and the occasional Miami Boys Choir ditty, usually excerpts from Psalms put to music. West songs are moving, uplifting, and truly original, and I wish there were more original “Jewish” contemporary songs that popularize the more inspirational, redemptive, universal aspects of Judaism.

So, in honor of Christmas, this Jew is posting a Christian rock song about our power to change the world called “Do Something.” (Not to worry, no mention of “J”, so it’s kosher. In fact, the refrain, “if not now, then when” is taken straight from the Talmud!)

Merry Christmas our Christian friends!