Bored white people, why I hate Lindy England and being stood up by a national hero.

If you weren’t sure, let me assure you now. The western media was bored to tears yesterday. I know this because another photographer and I were uploading images, checking emails and reading the headlines last night and we were both thoroughly confused by which Pakistan we had been in all week. AFP, BBC, NYTimes and far too many other agencies and outlets had headlines that were in conflict with what we both saw and experienced. There was violence, bombs went off, people were shot and, by no means was this election process a PTO bake sale. However, the fear and build up was worse than the reality I saw. In the end the worst violence I have heard about was a bomb in the northern area of Swat that killed 20+ people wounding nearly one hundred and a gunfight that killed a candidate, his driver and bodyguard in Lahore. Personally I saw one fistfight (not impressive at all) and thousands of people eager to vote.
I wont sit here and belittle the media coverage though either, NYTimes shoot Max Becherer (un-confirmed) had his camera taken and broken my men with guns in an area called Gujrat. Max still has great work up on NYTimes.com so he is fine, pissed I would imagine but fine.

The voter turn out was predictably low and some un-confirmed rumors of vote buying but again, I saw nothing and heard only rumors. I went to 7 or 8 (of 382 in the ISB/’Pindi area) polling stations in and around Islamabad/Rawalpindi alone. There are 160 million estimated people in Pakistan with over 60% under 30; most of the younger people are so disillusioned by the government that they hardly showed interest in the election. Older men and a LOT of women were present at the stations I visited. Women seemed to be voting en force, lined up 20 deep in some places. It was re-assuring to see women observing Purdah (basically covering the entire body in modesty but not a full burkah, you can still see a woman’s eyes and bare hands) voting. Again I want to say that I was in Islamabad and its surrounding areas, I know that up in NWFP (north western frontier province) the liberal party kicked out a large number of the conservative religious politicians. They did so with little to no help from women voters on account of militants warning women not to vote.
Religion…handicapping female advancement for millennia.

Once the polls closed the media and observers were allowed to watch the votes being counted. I was taken back when the polling officer, gave instructions to the polling agents in Urdu then repeated it in English so I could understand. They began the count with a prayer and started to cut off the zip ties that locked the transparent plastic ballot boxes.
Now this is where I came in.
While standing on chairs etc to shoot the ballots being counted and writing down thoughts and observations…I noticed the scissors (the only thing they had to open the boxes) was not really cutting through the zip ties. SO, in the interest of nurturing democracy and aiding the Pakistani people realize their hopes of a free and transparent election process…I supplied the polling office with my Gerber multi-tool.
With one small action I spread the creamy goodness of representative governance across the freshly baked roti of Pakistan.
Let freedom ring! It sounds like a multi-tool.
Gerber does not list democratization and distribution of electoral results as a use of the tool but I will remind you that the American people are humble sort. Not ones to brag.
Besides, I am fairly sure I was NOT supposed to help out in any way, shape or form.
It did endear me a bit to men in the room though.
The election officer was upset that I was going to leave before the end of the count because he was insistent that I stay to verify that everything was fair and clean. He showed me ballots that were in valid and explained why they were (mostly double stamping) invalid.
At this point I want to say this about the ballots and the way voting was done. Pakistan has a national literacy rate hovering around 50% among men and around 10% for women (much higher in both cases in the capital and large cities). So having a ballot with just text is not really fair or usable, so parties have symbols associated with their party and people simply stamp the symbol of the party they want to vote for, there is the parties name written next to each symbol though. Ahem..Donkeys and Elephants anyone?

Some of the chosen symbols are pretty strange to me. Some of the more obvious ones are the Tiger for Nawaz Sharifs party PML-N or the Arrow for Benezir Bhutto’s PPP party. However…the Ceiling Fan, Banana, men’s suit vest, ear of corn, screw and my favorite…the brick with the word “BRICK” on it.
Lets all vote brick in ’08. I will.

I was however a bit put out by the great Imran Khan, google him…captain of the Pakistani Cricket team who won the World Cup for Pakistan (a VERY big deal). I was put in touch with his media person so I could photograph him and talk to him about his boycott of the elections. First off, he has some very valid points against the election. The Judiciary has been arrested, dismissed, replaced with loyalists etc. Sounds familiar for some reason.?...I can’t remember why though. His point is that this election is not just since it has been fixed by destroying and stocking the supreme court/lower courts with judges now friendly to the current government when the recently dismissed court officers had stood up to some of Musharrafs tactics and actions.
So I met him at a hotel on the 17th, where he told me he would have more time tomorrow to speak with me and let me photograph him.
I told him I would be covering the election but would make arrangements with him.
He gave me his cell number and was out the door. The whole thing was less than a minute.
Of course he hasn’t responded to my calls all during the afternoon of the 18th and I will try again today but damn it! I was stood up but a National Hero. I guess its good that I don’t give a damn about cricket or it may hurt more. I am a sensitive type, easily disappointed and what not.

I am confident in saying there were lots of disappointed media types waiting to descend on a bomb blast or gun battle, sickly I was a little disappointed too I think. Yes I stared at that last sentence wondering if I meant it and I do. I have no pride in the idea that people would be killed and I would show up and photograph it, transmit them and hopefully have a shot on a front page somewhere but, everyone I met with, everyone I talked to (media and real) we were all sure someone one get weird in the capital. So I built up my idea of my response to the event. When the polls closed and people began to celebrate, they set off fireworks and both the local cops and I started making our way to the explosions cautiously, looking at each other the whole way. Our reactions were different when we heard cheering and not screaming. The laughed and walked away, I was a more than a bit creeped out by my boredom. It’s a good boredom…a safe boredom.

This morning I woke up early to see who won what seats, where and if the general population was content or burning the parliament down.
I shot a small news stand in the market place near my hotel only to with in five minutes of my showing up an shooting to have two TV crews show up and shoot the same angles I just did. I always try to stay out of other peoples shots but if you set up your camera in front of me, I will get in your frame to get my shot. I do make friends so easily.

Which brings me Lindy England….the Army Sgt. Who was smart enough to be photographed by her fellow nuclear scientists abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
I am constantly asked, “From which country are you?” I tell everyone “USA”. Some people are shocked, some are indifferent, some are even happy to meet me, most kind of look a little disgusted and say Oh..Ok and that’s that. This morning a woman in Purdah (again…full head and face covering but not a burkah, pay attention people!) asked me which newspaper I am with, followed by which country am I from? Her English was quite good (she later told me she worked for the Foreign Ministry) and she seemed nice. She was until I told her that I am an American. Her eyes (all I could see) widened in horror and said that she hated the US, George Bush and what we are doing in Iraq and what we did in Afghanistan. So we talked for a minute or two. She agreed that before Bush (and thereby before September 11th) the US was a good country with good people but not anymore. I reminded her that we have an election coming this year and that Bush will be out very soon. I asked if she thought that this would help our (US) image here in Pakistan. She didn’t answer she just started telling me that she cried when she saw the photos of Lindy England (she remembered her name) and the prisoners. She asked if that is what women are like in the US? How could we be so cruel and she hopes god punishes her for her actions.
I told her that people in the US (everyone I know, anyway) was as horrified at the photos as she was, that England was in a military prison and that in no way is she indicative of American women. She finished talking to me as quickly as she started, I thanked her for talking to me and we both walked away.
Its moments like speaking with this woman in marketplace that bothers me the most. I couldn’t disagree with her on nearly anything she said. Parts of her logic were flawed and I could have pointed out that Pakistan’s largest aid contributor is the US but she probably hasn’t seen a nickel of that aid because her officials and politicians have sticky hands and deep pockets. I could point out that a sick and inhumane policy/event is not what my country is built on or what the population is willing to tolerate.
Is doesn’t matter though does it? I can have the same conversation in the US about how we need to send troops to Pakistan’s tribal areas and fight the Taliban there. After all if you’re not with us you’re against us. Right?

By 845am I walked back to my hotel and began editing what I just shot and typing up this blog.
A few minutes ago my driver called me to ask if I needed him today and I had to say no for now. I mean its simple folks…the election is done, the people seem happy so far and no one is rioting. In a year maybe but not at the moment, so here I am bored. I will contact a few NGOs to see if they want anything shot otherwise I will try and see what I can find to shoot.

For those of you who love me and those who only claim to…yes…my birthday was on Sunday and I thank you all for emailing me. It was a quiet birthday but it did include a beer. Only by name is it a beer though.
Last time I was here for a month and Virg and I found booze just once. It took some negotiation, some politicking, Virg being polite to the right people and me banging on a wire cage yelling at a liquor sales agent. In the end it was a hard fought battle for really bad whiskey.
This trip, I found beer in Islamabad in one day.
See I can so learn good!
The Marriott hotel in Islamabad has a basement bar with a back shelf teeming with the 5 bottles of booze available. None of it great. In fact the ONLY beer available is Heineken.
I was not raised to denigrate beer by calling Heineken as such. However a tall boy of Heineken is better than nothing (slightly). Any port in a storm and this is a Muslim (IE liquor free) country. Its stormy out there when it comes to beer choices.
I spent my birthday looking for work, working out my plan for the election, thankfully meeting a much better driver than I originally had, and getting real coffee and crap donuts. I was informed that I could head to the 5 star hotel here and they had a great buffet for $15 and free WiFi if you are working on your laptop while you eat. The food was good, I met a French photographer named Hughes Bataille and we had dinner and shared plans and ideas.
I headed over to the Marriott and had my tall boy and called it a night.

Waking up the day after my birthday hasn’t been that easy since I was FAR younger.


Take care,