Bye bye birdie
ELON Musk is at it again. Equal parts charismatic and controversial, the serial techpreneur, who last year bought Twitter for a whopping $44bn, has started erasing the social media platform’s iconic blue identity to replace it with a starker, more futuristic ‘X’. The rebranding exercise is part of his vision to reconfigure Twitter as an ‘everything app’, with features that will let users browse and consume multimedia content as well as make purchases and complete peer-to-peer transactions from the same platform. It sounds like an interesting plan — it’s a shame the Twitter bird had to fall victim to it. This major repositioning comes at a turbulent time for Twitter. The sharks have been circling, sensing weakness as the company’s new CTO upsets users with his frequent, sometimes whimsical changes to the platform, which have proved too jarring for more dedicated users. Competition has recently started cropping up, with major industry players like Meta and TikTok offering new features or services to rival what Twitter has on offer in a bid to pull disgruntled users away from it.
It doesn’t seem to be bothering Mr Musk much. The jury is still out on whether he is a villain or a genius, but if his past is anything to go by, he has achieved much that would have seemed impossible at one time. From manufacturing the wildly popular Tesla electric vehicles to making spaceships with SpaceX to revolutionising online payments with PayPal, he has changed the world in more ways than one. His turning Twitter into ‘X’ may seem eccentric, but it is an attempt to turn the struggling company financially viable by pivoting its product into an integrated platform that can help users make lifestyle choices with greater ease. Will the big bet pay off? Time will tell. Meanwhile, Mr Musk is living up to his reputation for venturing into the unknown and risking it all for his dreams.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2023
Sexism central
EVEN for someone who wears his misogyny on his sleeve, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s ugly outburst in a joint session of parliament on Tuesday betrayed singular uncouthness.
Lashing out at criticism by opposition parliamentarians for “bulldozing” bills by the government, he singled out PTI’s women lawmakers and derided them as the “remains” and “ruins” of party chairman Imran Khan.
“This is the garbage left behind which has to be cleaned,” he said. As if that were not derogatory enough, he later added: “Depraved women should not lecture on chastity.” In a patriarchal culture, casting aspersions on women’s ‘character’ is low-hanging fruit.
For male politicians, it is the quickest way to try and ‘shame’ female opposition figures into silence; Mr Asif and others of his ilk should know that this reprehensible line of attack betrays their own intellectual bankruptcy.
Strategically deployed misogyny aims to trivialise women’s work and their views, and keep them on the peripheries — passive onlookers rather than individuals making an impact on society.
Such demeaning attitudes should be considered especially unacceptable in a country with a massive gender gap in economic participation and opportunity because they reinforce the ‘perils’ that lurk in the public space should women ‘dare’ to venture forth.
One would imagine then that at least female parliamentarians would find common cause in standing united when they are targeted in this manner, whether through direct jibes or sly innuendo. Unfortunately, in a polarised atmosphere, even misogyny is politicised.
It is decried when it emanates from the opposing camp, condoned when one of their own resorts to it. Women PTI legislators who rightly denounced Mr Asif’sremarks had either stayed silent or rushed to defend their party chairman when he made deplorably crass comments about Maryam Nawaz at a rally last year.
Similarly, on Tuesday, the PTI women got no support from their compatriots who appeared to be willfully ignoring the blatant sexism on display.
Even female lawmakers from the PPP chose to stay silent; this is the party that gave Pakistan its first woman prime minister and which recently issued a show cause notice to a prominent leader from its own ranks when he made light of sexual assault. All members of the House of representatives should unequivocally condemn sexist language, no matter who utters it. That is a red line that none must cross.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2023
Terrorist threat
OVER the past few weeks, KP has suffered from frequent terrorist attacks. The latest incident occurred in the Jamrud area on Tuesday, when a senior police officer was martyred as he confronted a suicide bomber who had taken refuge in a mosque. Last week, terrorists had attacked a police post in Peshawar’s Sarband area, while suicide bombers had also targeted Bara bazaar; numerous police personnel were martyred in the latter incident. It is suspected that members of the Jamaatul Ahrar terrorist outfit may be behind the Jamrud attack, as well as some of the other recent incidents in KP. JuA has an on-again, off-again relationship with the banned TTP; in fact, many of the terrorist groups active in the region have a diffused structure, while splinter factions are also common.
The fresh wave of terrorism confronting KP needs to be addressed to prevent further bloodletting. Far too many security personnel have fallen in the line of duty, while local residents demonstrate for peace, and demand that their areas be cleansed of violent extremists. Hundreds of tribesmen took out a peace rally in Tirah valley on Tuesday calling for an end to targeted killings and extortion in their area; they lamented the fact that militants were moving around “freely” in Khyber district. This is not the first of such gatherings; numerous others have been held in various parts of KP over the past few months, as incidents of terrorist violence have grown after a tenuous ceasefire with the banned TTP fell through.
Whether it is the TTP, JuA or similar outfits, they cannot be given any space to operate, particularly in the former tribal areas. Security operations must be stepped up so that terrorist groups cannot expand their malign activities. Where militant havens in Afghanistan are concerned — both the TTP and JuA are believed to be active in the Afghan provinces bordering Pakistan — Asif Durrani, the government’s special representative on Afghanistan, has only recently returned from Kabul after holding talks with the Taliban rulers. From what is publicly known regarding these meetings, Taliban officials have repeated the rhetoric that their soil is not being used for terrorism, though evidence strongly suggests otherwise. While it is the state’s responsibility to secure Pakistani territory, the counterterrorism effort will suffer if militants continue to have sanctuaries across the border. Therefore, the government must keep up the pressure on the Afghan Taliban to do more to contain the TTP and other terrorist groups. Kabul’s rulers depend on Pakistan to facilitate trade and for diplomatic support. The message from Islamabad should be that if terrorists continue to use Afghan soil, these ties will be affected. Additionally, there should be a continued demand from all of Afghanistan’s neighbours to shut down terrorist sanctuaries.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2023