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TechnoratiThis Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Editor's note: Medea Benjamin and colleague Tighe Barry, are on a week-long special visit to Karachi and Islamabad. They arrived in the city on Saturday on a project that seeks to educate the US public about the dire situation in Pakistan, its implications for both the region and US national security and how to support the return of democracy in the country.
Let me introduce you to a flash demonstration, Karachi-style. Since the police have been rounding up and jailing people protesting General Musarraf's imposition of martial law on November 3, one of the new tactics is a "flash mob." Today, people gathered along the waterfront at the McDonalds (yes, they hate gathering at McDonalds, but it's a good landmark with a parking lot). The group was small--about 25 people--but they were men and women, young and old. Some women even brought their children. They were well-dressed, well-educated, English-speaking professionals. Most had never participated in a protest before martial law was declared, but they were quickly becoming seasoned activists.
They were delighted that US activists had come to show support. Tighe and I interviewed several of them on camera before the action started. One of the women was a journalist who insisted that journalists must shed the pretense of "objectivity." When the government starts censoring the press, she said, it's time for all journalists to take a stand. Another women in her 50s was a public health worker who bemoaned the fact that she could not motivate more of her colleagues-doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers-to join the movement. "The lawyers in this country are really the only organized professional sector that is standing up to Musharraf," she said. "It's understandable that the poor who are struggling everyday to survive cannot afford to protest. But the other professionals should be out here with us. And the political parties, the ones who can really mobilize large numbers of people, should be taking the lead. But they are too busy jockeying for power so it's up to us, the civil society, to lead."
The group, holding a few banners and posters (one said, in English: "This revolution will not be televised", referred to the closing of TV stations), began walking along the sidewalk that borders the beach. Part of the action was to quickly spray paint the sidewalk and walls with anti-government slogans. "Most people in Karachi are poor," a young man said, "they can't even afford to buy a newspaper. So writing on the public spaces is a good way to get the word out." They also engaged the people walking and driving by, handing out leaflets calling on the government to release jailed activists and reinstate democratic rule. When a crowd had gathered around, one of the women began to give a speech in Urdu. She was not your typical revolutionary--in fact, this young, beautifully dressed woman worked in a bank. But she was passionate about the need to restore the rule of law and drew applause from the crowd.
As she was talking, you could hear the siren of a police car pulling up. You might think that the group would have dispersed immediately (the women with children did), but most people stayed. One young man who was with the group kept filming as the police approached and started yelling at the crowd to disperse. The police didn't like that, and two of them tried to grab his video camera and threatened to arrest him. Two women immediately intervened, trying to calm the police. They escorted the man to his car, but the police blocked the car. One of the policemen, toting a Kalashnikov, also approached Tighe and wanted his video camera. He started grabbing Tighe's hand, trying to pull him to the police car. Tighe, playing dumb, kept repeating that he was just a tourist, while I grabbed the camera and put it in my purse. The policeman let Tighe go, but the standoff continued with the other man.
So the women huddled and came up with a plan to all jump in the car. "The police are less likely to arrest him if he is surrounded by women," they reasoned. So five of us, including me (a foreigner was even better protection), squeezed into the car. And sure enough, it worked. They police, exasperated, finally told him to go.
Afterwards, the group met in a local café to "debrief." The man who almost got arrested was giving high fives to the women. I asked him if he was scared and he shrugged. "I've seen so many others get arrested in these last few weeks," he said, "I thought it was my turn." I asked him what he did for a living. "I'm a dentist," he laughed, "so perhaps my arrest would have gotten some of my colleague out on the streets."
The group made some decisions for future actions: When the police threaten us, the men should leave and the women should stay because the police have a harder time roughing up women. If one person gets arrested, they should all go with him or her. Next action, tomorrow at the Press Club.
And so it goes here in Pakistan, where lawyers, bank tellers, journalists-and dentists--are taking on a US-backed dictator.
Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) is cofounder of Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org) and CODEPINK: Women for Peace (www.codepinkalert.org).
32 Comments so far
Show AllI think some people rise above what they have chosen to create for themselves, thier family or community for something much bigger. A test of your humanity to a create change. Medea Bejamin strikes me as such a person. I mean that in a good way.
"And perhaps the people who are not making any difference in Pakistan are also dressing well."
Thats right ... and perhaps the people who are making a difference in Pakistan are not dressing well !! ... reading comprehension lessons are a must ...
Flash demos seem like an excellent idea considering that not enough is happening to protest the horrors of the Bush/Cheney regime.I marched in the demo on Oct.27th in NYC but the city was so empty and everything was so neatly planned it was like being in a hollow shell. The status quo needs to be shaken out of its senses to the bloodshed that is taking place in too many places. This is not the time to procrastinate. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the country and get out and raise the rooves of all cities and towns everywhere. How can we organize regular steady flash demos here? Where are the huge demonstrations. Peace is an action, militancy is an option. The people brought down Nixon in the 70's and were willing to make the sacrifices to do it. C'mon people. Take it to the streets!
You can bookmark an English daily from any country to get local news on the internet depending on your interest. Not everyone is doing such research.
And perhaps the people who are not making any difference in Pakistan are also dressing well.
Nothing Personal
"What I don't get is why people like gyptian have to decry a piece like this."
Ive worked with Medea before and she is terrific and deeply committed. I admire her and am involved with codepink (though not enough). My criticism is based on the fact that western media lends credibility to 'well-dressed' individuals as opposed to the unwashed masses and Medeas statement seems to fit that premise. As for the rest of your rant ... ill let it slide ... me no time ...
"We have rarely gotten first hand reports from Pakistan, unless you listen to the BBC."
Try using the 'internet'. I believe you can find news from other parts of the world other than CNN/FOX/BBC.
While I commend the work of Medea and her caring about the world it is important to allow individual governments to start dealing with their own internal affairs and the US government, agents and people of the US to get out of the internal affairs of other nations.
The people of the USA should depend on electing the right people to change the course of American Politics and the American Congress. It should be the actions in the USA that show what liberty and democracy can do and to restore those democratic rights and ideals of Americans that have been trampled on by the present government and congress.
The rights and freedoms of a democratic congress that really understands democracy and freedoms should restore American democracy and it is this which must reappear in the world. the present election is the forum not Pakastan. This is where your action and energy are appropriate. Medea this is where your energy is required for those issues. The USA needs a congress not terrified by scare politics or so called wars on everything.
Medea, it is time to come back to your America and speak there to those issues rather than involving yourself in the Pakastani elections. You have more to do in the USA than in Pakastan with your zeal for arrest! Speak legally, if your able and allowed to speak in the USA to the so-called democratic government and congress where you have been recently evicted.
It's time to use the politics of legal dissent and the name you have been building for yourself as a peoples advocate to change the course of the American Elections not the one in Pakastan.
ike
Of course the revolution won't be televised. I can't even listen to Public Radio any more -- it should be renamed Middle East News Network or something. Top of the headlines at every hour is either Israel, Iraq or Iran.
I'm more interested in things going on in the US, things affecting the working poor and former middle-class, single-payer, etc.
There could literally be a coup in D.C. and NPR would start its next hourly segment with "...and today in the Middle East..." Are we supposed to care that much about it still?
@heavyrunner November 27th, 2007 2:51 pm
I have visited more countries than I can count on one hand. I havent visited any country where the cops are as heavy duty as they seem to be in the USA. In the USA, they seem to require total submission. They dont seem to tolerate any dissent.
It may well be that the cops there are on a power trip. Perhaps they like the macho forceful way that they have seen so much of on TV.
Or perhaps it is because in the USA, everyone seems to have guns, and the cops are afraid that someone may take them out.
I haven't visited the USA, (and given the treatment at customs on entry to the country I dont think I ever will), so I can only speak from impressions gained on the TV and internet. My impressions may be wrong...
interesting to see how people avoid getting arrested. Gary Kasperov got arrested at a rally of 2,000 in Moscow on Saturday. He had his bodyguard with him but the riot police let everybody leave at one checkpoint and they grabbed kasperov as he was leaving.
Kasperov is now in Moscow jail for 5 days and he cannot eat or drink there because the Rusian history of poisoning people!
Please get world out about kasperov a real true hero!!!! I set my google to alert me about the latest happenings because the press is NOT telling enough about him!!!!! and that includes common dreams.
WHY????
Fascinating article and discussion. As bad as things are here - and they are - some of what's gone on in Pakistan is inexcusable.
Lobster, I could not agree more that some of the most pressing issues of the day - media ownership, Congress' refusal to insure net neutrality - are being quashed by incessant talk of the latest inane goings on from prime-time world. Get the word out - while you still can.
Oops! Didn't read far enough.
Skip down and read FREE PRESS: FCC CHAIRMAN'S BIG MEDIA GIVEAWAY EXPOSED.
You may remember the airways belong (or belonged) to us, U. S. citizens.
A lot here in our own country isn't being televised. Right now a televised meeting of the FCC is showing on one of the C-SPANs that Taylor Tate woman who believes that TV is doing all the good by lowering rates, bringing clearer pictures, blah blah, to us. She thought the same during the last meeting I saw when Colin Powell's son was chair of this committee.
Don't know about you, but I think our great corporate media is the very group who picked out the "top" candidates for each political party to tout on TV. By touting, I mean they're shown in flattering lights and softened shadows. The selected candidates get to consider their messages in front of diffused back drops that won't interfere with what they have to say. Pretty much they're the only candidates we see. The Taylor Tate woman feels we have diversity.
What I see are channels full of scantily clad hard-looking people just past their youth jumping around exhibiting no talent whatsoever. Every now and then one finds a good story, a good game, or a couple of good explanations of the natural or political world.
I really don't care about the HD TVs or plasma or whatever. I really care about content. But Mrs. Taylor Tate sees diversity. What a tacky world is set before us as entertainment or as of some worth.
I think allowing corporations to own newspapers and TVs in the same market creates the monopoly view of what the community wants and needs.
Should we follow the lead of the Pakistanis and get out on the street (which street?) to advertise our views? Or shall we just sit at our computers and commiserate with those who agree with us?
since1492 November 27th, 2007 2:11 pm
The author certainly isn't advocating democracy. She knows better than that. She will leave promoting democracy to the NED. CODEPINK is our country's mom. She's compassionate and she's afraid. Fortunately, she's also wise. She has a keen sense of how to solve a family problem. She's wise enough to see that our problems now go much farther than our own house. And so some of the possible solutions must come from without. Mom's not afraid to leave the house but we should be ashamed of ourselves that our society has even produced a CODEPINK. Our father and his brothers must have fucked up royally to get mom so mad and out of the house.
Hoa binh
Props!
How much more honest can reporting get? What I don't get is why people like gyptian have to decry a piece like this. We have rarely gotten first hand reports from Pakistan, unless you listen to the BBC. We should be thankful for whatever we do get.
Pakistan has never been a democracy, under any of it's Prime Ministers. The undertow of Islamic fundamentalists almost dictates the need for a strongman in the seat. It would seem that gyptian's preferences are elsewhere. Musharaf is no worse than Zia Ul Haq or Nawaz Sharif. I will repeat - one of my ex-students proudly told stories of how the gangs in Karachi slaughtered innocents and wrote threats in the blood of the dead.
These folks are using Paint. I have stated earlier- it is the inteligensia that is holding Pakistan together.
I thank Cummudgeon for the piece on Ghaffar.
And yes, it is time that show ourselves outside of ourselves- Posting on Huffington or here alone is not going to get us anywhere.
arise257- Who's a hippie. Every march, protest or rally has to have a critical mass. Also reactionary forces of non-change can portray true democrats any way they wont to so I wouldn't worry about media propaganda. Hippie's are a sixties relic. Anyone who is outside of institutional power can be labeled. So I would not worry about being called names. Remember even Jesus was called names. Those who fear change label things in order to keep a view of something or someone static. I agree with your main point that people from all walks of life should show up at rallies. Remember language has power. We define ourselves. Therefore we cannot use the same language as those who would take away our rights. After awhile our discontent will become so large that truth will have to arc back towards justice.
Compassion, peace and joy to all.
I'm all for protesting Rebel Farmer and will -- I'm in a sub prime mortgage with foreclosure weeks away so what the hell? I'm making arrangements for our 3 adopted children and ready to work.
This "flash mob" thing is a terrific idea! 25 to 30 people in an unplanned, unregulated, short protest aren't going to bring out the robocops fast enough to cause a real problem. It would be cool if there could be a network of "flash mob" events in 300 cities, especially small towns, that could do an event every couple of weeks or so. Have them filmed and put out on the web all at the same time. It could become "the thing to do". It has to be centered around one thing, and one thing only. Impeachment? Restoreing the Constitution? Ending the invasion?
Ya know, this could actually take off in America. Kind of an underground of protest. Would probably have to start after the holidays though. I wonder how we could put something like this together that covered the entire map from coast to coast.
Another thought...How did Medea get out of the country? She couldn't even go to Canada last time I checked.
"They were well-dressed, well-educated, English-speaking professionals. "
Unfortunately the above 'types' are the only ones who get any real attention in the West !! The rest of the rag-tag protesters with traditional garb and unkempt hair will be relegated to the dustbin as terrorists.
I agree with jmacneil ... to read this sudden outpouring of concern in the western media really grates. News flash .... Pakistan under Musharraf was NEVER a democracy !!
"The revolution will not be televised, but it will be uploaded to Youtube."
Then the revolution will be taken down for copyright infringement, because corporations didn't like how their brands were portrayed in the revolution.
The story of censorship of the revolution will make a huge impact on the blogosphere and social news websites... causing the revolution to be used as a political slogan by politicians trying to connect with their base, corrupting the idea of the revolution, until the term is meaningless and cliché.
Ok, that's enough, I've met my cynicism quota for the day.
Poet and shance----I'm with you. We gotta start talking to each other one-on-one---no more buying into the divide and conquor mentality---look where it has taken us. We are ONE and we forget that eternal truth at our own and the planet's peril.
Another great piece by Ms. Benjamin - a wonderful description how citizens can successfully engage in civil disobedience and protect each other at the same time.
Medea and the women of CODEPINK are true champions. They are fiercely compassionate, caring individuals making a powerful and positive impact by their creative actions, and their education, which tends to shed light on the utter insanity and greed in Washington DC and as such, the entire country and world at large.
We owe much to leaders like Medea Benjamin, Anne Wright, Jodie Evans and so many others for setting the example that they are. Courage is contagious and their courage has made an incredible impact and continues to do so. They continue to create positive change through their caring, their actions and their commitment to doing the right thing.
People to people, one right after another, this is what Medea Benjamin and her colleagues do so well. When we get down to talking directly to one another asnd avoid all the intermediaries, we discover that what we have in common is much greater than what seperates us.
Lead on Medea and colleagues of both genders--you are a big part of what is right about America.
I spent a month in Pakistan this summer. So I speak with some experience when I say that the Pakistani police and army are like kittens compared to the storm troopers we suffer here in the U.S. Imperialist police state.
Does anyone think that our black suited robocops with tasers and pepper spray and 9 mm pistols and the rest would have been deterred for a moment by women or foreigners? They all would have been beaten bloody or shot and arrested or taken to the morgue. Their car would have been left unlocked and unprotected and their car keys thrown in the trash. If they did not each have sufficient funds for bail they could expect to rot in a county jail for months, if not years, before trial.
None of that is anything new.
Maybe if the crowd had beaten the cops to death and torched the car, they would get the attention of the US media -- if it bleeds it leads.
The author certainly isn't advocating democracy. She knows better than that. She will leave promoting democracy to the NED. CODEPINK is our country's mom. She's compassionate and she's afraid. Fortunately, she's also wise. She has a keen sense of how to solve a family problem. She's wise enough to see that our problems now go much farther than our own house. And so some of the possible solutions must come from without. Mom's not afraid to leave the house but we should be ashamed of ourselves that our society has even produced a CODEPINK. Our father and his brothers must have fucked up royally to get mom so mad and out of the house.
Hoa binh
You mean the activist wanted to visit Cuba? Which country has the only working democracy in the world?
The editor (whoever that is) was talking about the activist's attempt to return to democracy, not the government's.
Until the US populace gets the courage to take to the streets and follow the example of Gandhi's non-violent marches and demonstrations as these Pakistani citizens are doing nothing will change. The people have got to WANT the Constitution restored enough to ACT accordingly. If there is no such desire, there will will be no more US Constitution (except in name only).
What a shame to let cowardice bring down such a noble experiment of human governance!!
Don't all of you find it intriguing that the MSM gives much more play to the Pakistan protests and the crackdown than any protests and their aftermath in the US?
The coverage is meant to make us afraid to stand up in non-violent protest. Our corporate overlords who control the press are trying to intimidate us (and from several comments - succeeding.)
Please read the following about a non-violent partner of Gandhi's who was from what is now called Pakistan. We could do worse than study the example of this great man from Pakistan. Pay special attention to the 1930 event described. It took many more years but the non-violence finally overcame. I'm afraid we in this country do not have the intestinal fortitude necessary.
In this time of violence, we need to know that we are not alone.
Ghaffar Khan
Peace Warrior
The world chaos caused by our leaders of all stripes makes this a good time to reconsider the life of a great Pashtun warrior who lies buried in the ancient city of Jalalabad, Pakistan. His name was Abdul Ghaffar Khan.
His story is contained in Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, A Man To Match His Mountains, by Eknath Easwaran (Published by Nilgiri Press). Easwaran is a meditation teacher who founded the California-based Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in 1961. The Nilgiri Press is associated with the center.
Born near the Khyber Pass to a prosperous landowning family, Ghaffar Khan was more than six feet tall and powerfully built. A devout Muslim, he led a trained Islamic army — the Khudai Khidmatgars, or Servants of God. It was a private force, formed to free the Pashtun tribesmen from British imperial rule. The Khudai Khidmatgars were thoroughly professional, with uniforms, officers, regimental flags and even a bagpipe corps. But the soldiers swore the strangest oath that warriors — especially fierce Pashtun warriors — could take:
I promise to refrain from violence and taking revenge.
I promise to forgive those who oppress me or treat me with cruelty.
Ghaffar Khan believed the mortal weakness of his fellow tribesmen was an obsession with honor and revenge killings. They helped perpetuate a cycle of violence that the British were quick to exploit for their own purposes.
In time, this devout Muslim befriended India's Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of nonviolent protest. Photographs from the 1930s show the diminutive "Gandhiji" sitting next to the immense Pashtun warrior at rallies uniting Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi chanted from the Bhagavad Gita, a work sacred to Hindus, while Khan responded with passages from the Koran, the sacred book of Islam.
The bright-colored uniforms of Ghaffar Khan's soldiers gave them a sobriquet: Red Shirts. On one April day in 1930, the Red Shirts showed their courage and devotion to the non-violent teachings of their leader when the British Army took one whole day to shoot down innumerable Red Shirts. As a Harvard scholar writes: "The Red Shirts kept standing at the spot facing the British soldiers and were fired at from time to time, until there were heaps of wounded and dying lying about. This state of things continued from eleven till five o'clock in the evening. When the number of corpses became too many the ambulance cars of the government took them away and burned them."
Ghaffar Khan endured beatings and arrests and continued to lead his Red Shirts on a path of nonviolence until the end of the British Raj.
As communal and sectarian violence racked South Asia following the end of British rule, Ghaffar Khan and Gandhi travelled the Indian subcontinent, demanding that the fighting stop. At prayer meetings, the two read from one another's sacred scriptures and calmed the crowds.
"A person who has known God will be incapable of harboring anger or fear within him, no matter how overpowering the cause it may be," Ghandi would say.
Ghaffar Khan also championed women's rights. "In the Holy Koran you have an equal share with men," he told them. "You are today oppressed because we men have ignored the commands of God and the Prophet…"
When partition gave Pakistan independence, Ghaffar Khan boycotted the ceremonies — as Gandhi did similar events in New Delhi. And while Gandhi fell to an assassin's bullet, within a few years, the Pakistani government became the jailer of Ghaffar Khan. His son, Abdul Wali Khan, said that his father spent "every third year of his life in jail."
In the climate of festering hate that exists today, it is good to remember a gentle giant who envisioned a different kind of Jihad — a path of peace and brotherhood.
Not yet having read the article, but just the "Editor's note", I am curious to know if the editors of CD are rightists pretending to be progressives? Musharref obtained his dictatorship of Pakistan through a coup in 1999, so how are the editors of CD now describing this effort as what could be enunciating a methodology for "...return of democracy in the country."? Or are you aluding to some time previous to the coup? And if the Editor's note has been misinterpreted, then perhaps such addendums should be phrased with more care.
The revolution will not be televised, but it will be uploaded to Youtube.
I wish major cities would erupt into protest in the US. There's no shortage of things to be pissed about here. Also, props to the professionals in Pakistan getting involved in activism. If we had that here, it certainly wouldn't be "business as usual". I think it would also add an air of legitimacy to a protest if more business types were in the crowd than the usual brand of hippies and students. It's kind of like how the civil rights movement didn't pick up steam until white people started marching in the crowds, we gotta show them it's more than just the counter-culture types that want change.
Time for the US citizens to take on the US junta . Hang them naked from the nearest MacDonalds arch and spray paint messages to the corporatocracy on their asses.