I haven’t played cricket with Imran Khan, the newly elected prime minister of Pakistan, but I did interview him back in 2005 when only a rare foreign journalist was interested in him despite his fame as having been the world’s best cricketer. Now he has won a handsome political victory.
We did talk about Kashmir, the number one foreign policy issue then and today. He didn’t think the Indian government of that time, when Manmohan Singh was prime minister, was strong enough to make a deal. On the Pakistani side he didn’t think an army man could do it despite the army’s large influence on politics. He went on to say, “A civilian prime minister could do it if a real leader emerged like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto” (who was prime minister in the 1960s). Maybe he meant himself.
The issue of Kashmir has dominated Pakistani and Indian foreign policy ever since colonial India was partitioned into predominantly Hindu India and Moslem Pakistan in 1947. The British left Kashmir with a majority Muslim population and a Hindu ruler. Both Pakistan and India claimed this beautiful piece of Himalayan real estate.
America could have used the muscle that the nuclear deal gave it to help push India to sign on to Musharraf’s magnanimous offer
The conflict has led to three wars with President Bill Clinton saying he was worried the next clash might lead to nuclear war.
India missed its great opportunity to settle the burning dispute while the military president, Pervez Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 2001 until his overthrow in 2008, was in power.
According to diplomats I talked to, both British and American, in New Delhi and Islamabad, a deal was tantalisingly close. One British ambassador told me that the main barrier to a deal was “psychological” and that India had to make very few concessions to make a final deal.
If Musharraf wasn’t prepared to give away the store, the Pakistani compromises came close to it. But India, despite the seemingly friendly diplomacy of Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the un-warlike prime minister, Manmohan Singh, couldn’t bring itself to go the extra mile.
Observers had different explanations for the Indian intransigence- that the Indian army, the intelligence services and senior bureaucrats in the foreign ministry were resisting an accord; that the leadership had not made an effort to educate the electorate as Pakistan’s had done; that the prime minister was weak and over preoccupied with the economy; that his (highly successful) attempt to lower the grinding poverty in the rural areas was also a preoccupation; that the time consuming nuclear deal with the U.S was critically important; and that India rather liked the status quo, since stubbornness fitted in with its self-image of being the sub continent’s super power. There was also the failure of the George W. Bush Administration that was, in Singh’s words, “loved” by India for pushing a deal through Congress that lifted the long standing embargo on selling nuclear materials and reactors to India. America could have used the muscle that the nuclear deal gave it to help push India to sign on to Musharraf’s magnanimous offer.
After his re-election Prime Minister Singh unexpectedly found himself riding high. Not only did Congress win hands down, but the grumbling that Singh was a weak prime minister had disappeared. But Singh still wouldn’t bite the bullet. As he had said to me eighteen months before, “How can you expect me to push a peace deal when militants are coming from Pakistan every few months to set off bombs in India.” Needless to say, the big bombing in Bombay in 2010 reinforced his argument. But when I repeated this in my interview with Musharraf, he responded sharply. “I don’t agree with his way of looking at it. If everyone in the world looked for calm and peace before reaching a solution, we would never achieve peace anywhere. It is the political deal itself that can produce calm. Bomb blasts are a result of the problem. Let’s not put the cart before the horse.” Musharraf had his own good reasons for compromising. The conflict has led to Pakistan-based guerrillas fighting for a free Kashmir, (which Pakistan’s intelligence service has long secretly supported, although much less these days). But these militants have given aid, men and advice to the Taliban in Afghanistan. In turn the Afghani Taliban have helped the Pakistani Taliban, although they have not gone along with the attacks made by factions of Pakistan’s Taliban- such as when they tried to kill Musharraf, did kill Benazir Bhutto as she campaigned to be prime minister and when they have blown up schools and clinics. Settling Kashmir could have been and would be still a major contribution towards taming the Pakistani Taliban.
Is Imran Khan the civilian leader who could do the job of making peace with India? Could he carry the army with him? Can he neutralise the Pakistani Taliban? Is India ready this time if he does? We wait and we will see.
For 17 years Jonathan Power was a foreign affairs columnist and commentator for the International Herald Tribune/New York Times and could be contacted on his website:
www.jonathanpowerjournalist.com or phone No: 0046 706510879
At last something for our straw-clutching liberals to cheer about; a specimen of unimpeachable genre and Oxonian vintage, a gentleman to the tips of his fingers and squeaky clean to boot. In 2010 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. The family was affluent and of Pashtun ethnicity though I think not of noble ancestry; but who cares, he has done the liberals proud. I am not one of their dying breed but Imran has something to fete me too; his father, Ikramullah was a civil engineer who graduated from Imperial College in 1946 – good school, I can vouch for that!
Good hard-hitting left-liberalism; his pep talk speaks a lot about the poor. His non-cricketing record is more about social-work and building hospitals (he raised more than $25 million from all over the world for a cancer hospital) than anything a UNP or SLFP/SLPP bum or leader has done. But there is no denying he did indulge in a bit of painting in his youth; the colour was red, the canvas was the town. The handsome Khan renders the visage of a president much in the news these days for serial philandering look like a pig’s backside. I am not going all gooey liberal; there is indeed a darker side. It is Imran’s alliance with religious right-wing parties and the hardly concealed warmth of the military that upsets his liberal fans. To explain it away as just anti-Americanism, Pashtun genes and a fiercely independent personality ignores that these ghosts of past alliances and the Judas kiss of the military could prove his undoing one day. But heaven forbid; these days we need to grab at every liberal straw.
Imran called liberals "fascists and scums" for cheering American policy in Afghanistan and supporting drone and ground assaults on militants in the border regions. Nevertheless the liberals are over the moon and mass expectations are that the new broom will sweep away the muck of the past. Similar expectations in Lanka post January 8, 2015 were beyond the ability of the Ranil-Sirisena duumvirate to fulfil and the February 10, 2018 flop was spectacular. The expectations and the snares facing Imran are eerily similar. The eye-catching motif of his campaign was "defeat and eliminate corruption". Failure to prosecute and incarcerate Rajapaksa era crooks was the rock on which Yahapalana was shipwrecked. However there is hope Imran will do better. He fired 20 provincial MPs found guilty of corruption; in the UNP, SLPP or SLFP, perish such thoughts, pariahs invariably are in the scrum for cabinet posts!
Disputing the legitimacy of the election is the universal drivel of a losing side anywhere in the world, but a European Union monitoring team did say that the campaign featured a "lack of equality", meaning it was not a level playing field. The EU mission, but did not allege fraud in voting or counting procedures but did complain about an uneven playing field during the campaign and noted that "during counting, security personnel recorded and transmitted the results, giving the impression of a parallel tabulation". FAFEN, an independent Pakistani election observer network was unsatisfied with counting procedures. Imran has said his party will cooperate with any investigation.
The eleven point centrist agenda
Here is the centrist programme of PTI or Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice); the name has a liberal twang like that of the late Rev. Sobitha’s outfit. The summary is culled from several sources. Readers will observe the big basket of goodies but proof of the pudding remains in the eating. This summary is for your interest; I am not vouching for any of it.
Education:
PTI will invest more in education, and implement a standard, high quality education system across Pakistan. No country can flourish without emphasis on education. The Asian Tigers educated children and adults. Half Punjab’s budget is spent in Lahore alone. Countries don’t flourish by roads and bridges but by human development.
Healthcare:
PTI will give health priority and establish a quality healthcare system. Health insurance will be provided for those in need and hospitals established. The poor will receive treatment, the rich can get it in Pakistan rather than overseas.
Revenue generation and tax reforms:
The tax rate will be lowered and more people brought into the net. Reforms will ensure high collection. Each year Rs 8000 billion will be collected to ensure steady revenue. How to generate revenue to be rid of heavy debts? "We don’t have money to run the country, we are in heavy debt. I will show how to gather money" but Imran gave no details. [Note by KD: Imran’s first embarrassing job after taking office may be to approach the IMF for $12 billion bailout].
Controlling corruption
Corruption will be controlled by strengthening the Federal Board of Revenue and the Judiciary ("Fat hopes!" we Sri Lankans will exclaim). Imran cited the expulsion of 20 MPAs from his party for "selling votes" earlier this year.
Economy
* Tax on exports to be lowered in order to compete with India.
* Overseas Pakistanis to be encouraged to invest in Pakistan.
*New businesses to be encouraged.
* Hotels and amenities will be built; four new tourist destinations to be added each year.
* Lower tax on electricity and gas to compete with Indian market.
Employment
PTI promises to help people into employment by building cheap houses; cheap houses for the poor, more jobs. More technical universities to create a skilled workforce. Jobs in tourism and in industries like textiles. Businesses with employment opportunities for youth will be facilitated.
Agriculture
Improve agriculture and lives of farmers on an emergency basis. "They work for the whole year and get nothing in the end. They are exploited by the sugar mill mafia. The mafia will be brought to justice".
Strengthening the federation
The federation of Pakistan will be strengthened giving provinces more rights and new a local government system established. Local governments will have directly elected mayors in all cities. A new province will be created in South Punjab. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas will be merged with the Khyber Province.
Justice
"In Khyber (a province controlled by Imran’s party) the police is depoliticized. There’s no victimization, there was not a single extrajudicial killing in the province but in Sindh Province notorious Police Chief Rao Anwar (now on murder trial) killed 400 people."
Environment
The environment is a priority. "For the first time, the Khyber provincial government paid special attention to the environment. We plan to plant 10 billion trees across Pakistan and clean the rivers".
Women Empowerment
Imran claimed that his party has an extensive program for women empowerment. "Whatever I am today is because my mother made me patriotic and truthful."
Relations with India
The biggest obstacle confronting Imran Khan is the military. An Indian newspaper (or Minister) sneered: "They have only elected a new prime minister, not a new army commander; nothing will change". The military may not interfere excessively in domestic policy, but foreign policy, in particular arch rival India and the complicated relationship with America is handled by the military. Imran’s hands will be tied; unless he goes on the offensive and stirs mass support he is unlikely to wrest control. This is not to say he can’t – he has shown fierceness at times and may be bold about the Indo-Pak equation – but this is where the erstwhile chummy relations with the military and the religious-right could be a drag. Furthermore PTI does not have a parliamentary majority forcing it into a coalition government weakening it in these conflicts.
He has to bowl short, fast and on the leg-stump at the Generals; crack a few skulls. Either he contains the army or it will have him back in the pavilion, cap in hand. Does Imran want to captain the nation and come in to bat at number 11? If the new captain opens the bowling fast and furious, goes out to the people, enthuses his supporters, seizes the initiative and blasts to the boundary through the covers, he can force the military on to the back-foot.
"Success goes to those who dare and act, it seldom goes to the timid" to quote India’s first Prime Minister. This is Imran Khan’s choice of the moment. The equation with New Delhi is the cardinal pivot on which his leadership will be tested; great or pedestrian? It may cost him his life in a military coup or it may earn him honours far outshining 1992 cricketing glory. Ever the showman, he will not be easily cowed and hopefully the Generals have met their match. This is Pakistan’s January 8, one prays the outcome is better. Normalisation of Indo-Pak relations will be a gigantic forward step for both countries and for the Muslim and Hindu people of the subcontinent.
Within a month it will be clear whether Imran can enthuse the people and assert the primacy of his government, or whether, having entered into a Mephistophelean contract, he will be a pliant tool in the hands of the Generals. Imran is on record saying: "The army is the only institution in Pakistan that works". True, but now it is his job to get civilian institutions to "work" and bring the Generals to heel. Lenin and Mao, over decades, fashioned an instrument, the party, which had the mass power to leash the army. Imran must mobilise civilian Pakistan because he has no such instrument. "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries".
I do not have space today to write about ties with China and America; so two summary comments will have to suffice. Economic and strategic ties with China will remain much the same; with America, I foresee some fence mending.
Catholic clerics have been on the frontlines protesting Daniel Ortega's bloody crackdown—but one of them also helped fuel his rise.
Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega (L) delivers a speech beside Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo (R), president of the National Commission for Verification, Reconciliation, Peace and Justice of the Sandinista government, on November 03, 2008 in Managua. (MIGUEL ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images)
BYJAVIER ARGUELLO LACAYO,DANIEL LANSBERG-RODRÍGUEZ-
The role of Catholic elites in Latin American politics typically mirrors the expected role of their equivalents on a chess board. Oblique and cautious, famously difficult to pin down or box in, the bishop is expected to focus on supporting stronger allies, ideally from a safe distance. If, ever so often, it emerges to menace an errant or exposed monarch, it should do so to force movement in a certain direction—rather than actually taking the king down. In return, it is rewarded with the highest survival rate among the minor pieces regardless of who wins.
Nicaragua’s bishops, however, have historically played by different rules. Against a backdrop of a political carousel of civil wars, foreign coercion, and oppressive dictatorships of all ideological stripes, the first estate in Latin America’s poorest country has consistently risked itself to protect its fellow citizens. During the 1970s and 1980s, when Nicaragua became a Cold War battlefield pitting Soviet-backed Sandinista rebel Marxist movement and the West aligned klepto-military dynasty of the Somoza family, at the cost of at least 50,000 lives, played a prominent role mediating and promoting peace throughout.
Now, as Nicaragua’s most recent political crisis has become increasingly unhinged these past weeks, and the death and disappearances toll has spiked into the low thousands, the Catholic Church’s role as humanitarian martyr and active target of persecution has again taken center stage. In recent weeks, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and forces loyal to him have targeted clergy, profaning and destroying Catholic churches, even killing those who seek refuge within them. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has joined the fray, calling outthe Nicaraguan government over Twitter only July 30 for “virtually waging war on the Catholic Church and those calling for democracy and national dialogue.”
Any expression of solidarity with the victims of Ortega’s violence is of course commendable, especially at a time when Nicaragua, for years an outlier oasis of tranquility in a famously rough neighborhood, seems increasingly to be becoming Central America’s abattoir. Even so, the matter of the Catholic Church’s role during the lead-up to the present tragedy in Nicaragua is more complex than such talking points suggest. Ortega’s war on the church did not occur in a vacuum. And powerful political actors like presidents and Catholic cardinals, unlike chess pieces, rarely come in black and white.
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Ortega is often bundled in with Latin America’s shrinking pool of revolutionary anti-imperialist left-wing strongmen—a kind of off-brand Nicolás Maduro, worse mustache, no oil. This perception has been actively cultivated by Ortega’s government, but the legitimacy of his claim has less to do with his governance than with his geopolitical friend group—he fostered close diplomatic ties to left-wing leaders such as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chávez—and nostalgia for his earlier career. Ortega led the Sandinista revolution in the late 1970s against the military dynasty of the Somozas, which was long the regional gold standard for U.S.-supported crony capitalist dictatorships. During his first turn at the presidential helm, Ortega had come in promising a five-point government plan composed of free speech, human rights, respect for private property, a mixed economy (state and free enterprise), and nonpolitical alignment.
In this ambition, he ultimately went 0-for-5. Nicaragua’s decade as a de facto Soviet satellite proved as bad or worse as what had come before. Speech was heavily censored and controlled by the government. Over 700,000 hectares of farmland were confiscated along with over 2,000 private businesses. The economy became primarily state-owned and controlled as war was actively waged against its ideological Marxist enemies: the “opiate” Church and the private sector. Human rights abuses were rampant, with torture commonplace, and some 60,000 more lives were lost in a new civil war pitting the U.S.-backed Contras against an increasingly authoritarian Ortega administration. By the time Ortega was ultimately voted out by a landslide in 1990, he left behind a country with a public debt 1,000 percent greater than GDP, nearly 50 percent unemployment, and per capita incomes almost 70 percent below where it had been in 1978. Ortega insisted these were all consequences of U.S. meddling alone rather than of his own policies.
Ortega’s return to presidential power in 2007, buoyed by the leftist “pink tide” then engulfing the region and financed in part by Venezuelan petro-largesse, was paradoxically achieved because he ran democratically as the antithesis of his former communist self: He presented himself during the campaign as both a rarefied crony capitalist as well as a passionately avowed Christian. The political coalition that brought Ortega to power the second time and kept him there comfortably until recently included not only traditionally ideologically aligned interests such as the rural poor, but also archetypal counterrevolutionary bogeymen such as the business elite and the Catholic Church. And while left-wing populist rhetoric, alongside his aging revolutionary bona fides, largely sufficed to keep the former on board, maintaining the support of the latter required results.
Lucrative business opportunities were created behind closed doors through the umbrella chamber of commerce, COSEP, which acted as a private conduit between Ortega and his loyal captains of industry. Nicaragua’s economic elites had openly waged war with Ortega during his first stint as president, but this time they proved easily seduced by promises of corrupt advantages, including access to misappropriated Venezuelan aid funds, national champion status, and access to money laundering through Ortega’s complex web of political patronage. The president also steered clear of the nationalizations, protectionism, and currency meddling then quite fashionable among his regional allies. In return, much of the private sector celebrated Ortega as he steamrolled over institutional checks and balances, imprisoned political opponents, and brazenly consolidated absolute authority. (His wife is currently his vice president.)
Securing the church’s erstwhile support, or at least its acquiescence, to his return proved a bit more complicated. The fact that Ortega cut hard to the conservative right on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, often in stark contrast to increasingly progressive regional norms, and to his own reputation as a self-proclaimed socialist helped buy him time. His increasingly heavy reliance on religious rhetoric to underpin his populist message and frequent proclamations of a late-life conversion to Catholicism (ostentatiously marketing the fact at a time when the church had been losing ground to evangelical converts) also likely helped.
The beating heart of this rapprochement, however, was always the unholy alliance Ortega formed with his former nemesis, Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the former archbishop of Managua from 1970 to 2005 and Nicaragua’s most prominent ecclesiastical voice. Once co-opted, Obando would become a key partner in Ortega’s second stint as president, assuming ministry-level positions including the highly symbolic presidency of the Verification, Reconciliation, Peace, and Justice Commission. Ortega’s strategy for keeping his pet cleric onside would also require a medieval dose of nepotism. Roberto Rivas, born to the cardinal’s personal assistant and widely rumored to be the cardinal’s biological son, was made head of the Supreme Electoral Council and charged with running Nicaragua’s increasingly one-sided elections. As Rivas consolidated Ortega’s power, he amassed a personal fortune and a publicly opulent lifestyle and fostered corrupt ties that would ultimately lead to his sanctioning by the U.S. Treasury under the Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
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Nicaragua’s extreme inequality, rampant corruption, and deeply religious society would form the pillars of Ortega’s political control, and they continue to do so. The resultant coalition, unusually heterogenous in a region where class divisions and Marxist dichotomies remain unusually strong, was long Ortega’s greatest source of strength—until it became impossible to sustain.
As Venezuelan-funded corruption dried up following the collapse of oil prices in the last quarter of 2014, Ortega and his private-sector partners began to increasingly misappropriate public funds from the national pension system to fund private projects and maintain support. To combat the inevitable bankruptcy of the pension system, Ortega raised taxes and reduced pension payments to retirees, which triggered the first protests in mid-April. These were swiftly and brutally suppressed by state security authorities, with even worse atrocities committed by Ortega’s government-sponsored gangs drawn from the ruling party’s youth wing, the Juventud Sandinista. The crackdown precipitated a mass uprising in the following months, with millions taking to the streets to march against the government—only to be repressed anew. The situation is fast descending into the pattern of internecine civil strife familiar to the region from the late 20th century.
Ortega’s preferred modus operandi as president—namely the involvement of his partners in corruption—has allowed him to hold the threat of blackmail and threat of persecution by his increasingly controlled judiciary against potential adversaries. The tactic has proved to be especially effective with politicians and leaders of the Nicaraguan private sector, who have largely remained silent amid the crackdowns.
By contrast, a growing numberof church leaders have pronounced themselves firmly against state-sponsored violence and oppression, offering to act as mediators between the opposition and the state, even as the latter increasingly escalates its war against them. The recent death of Cardinal Obando in June has deprived Ortega of his kingside bishop, and with it any residual goodwill or tolerance he may have once held toward the church. Catholic clergymen have grown increasingly vocal against him, often risking their lives to provide shelter to the students prosecuted by state-sponsored terrorists. Of these, perhaps the most vocal leader within the Catholic Church has been Managua’s Bishop Silvio Báez, who proclaimed back in April that the students marching against oppression were the country’s “moral reserve” and urged them to “not fall to intimidation or yield to the violence.” The church has not only provided a voice and legitimized the protest movement, but also opened its doors to protect citizens from violence and initiated a dialogue while insisting on a cease-fire, keeping Ortega in constant check.
Facing mounting criticism internationally, Ortega the compassionate Christian conservative has reverted to Ortega the violent anti-clerical Cold War relic. He now accuses the church of actively instigating unrest to perpetrate a coup at the behest of the CIA and other shadowy imperialist cabals. He has escalated the violence against his foes in the church, with the vitriol of a lover spurned rather than an established enemy.
Openly attacking the church in a country as religious as Nicaragua usually doesn’t pay off politically in the long term, but Ortega seems willing to do whatever is necessary to retain power today. He has calculated that, given his government’s myriad crimes against his country’s democracy and its population, his retirement options are likely to be quite limited. Better then to bunker down and shoot on sight, buying time for some miracle reprieve to take place before you are physically dragged out of power.
Nicaragua’s Catholic Church will, for its part, survive Ortega’s downfall, even as the tyrant himself may not. The fact that, long before this current crisis, a wayward church leader was able to hijack its reputation and institutional legitimacy to cut a lucrative deal with the devil does nothing to minimize its heroic defense of the lives and rights of Nicaraguans before and since against the worst kind of government brutality. The church’s longstanding national reputation for humanitarianism and decency should emerge intact, perhaps even strengthened.
But somewhere within its arcane system of ecclesiastical checks and balances, something did in fact go wrong. A toxic fusion of church and state was allowed to occur, reminiscent of Latin America’s darker colonial past. How this happened, and why it was not actively resisted at the time, must be carefully studied lest it someday happen again.
Javier Arguello Lacayo was the founding Executive Director of the Nicaraguan Foundation for Socio-Economic Development (FUNIDES) and currently serves as the Executive Director at COGx, a research and development firm in applied cognitive science.
When it emerged that some of the boys are stateless, the news headlines changed in subtle ways from “Thai boys in the cave” to “boys in Thai cave”. Amid the widespread joy over the successful operation, the rescue has drawn attention to the broader issue of statelessness in Thailand.
The former Wolves goalkeeper is in full remission after being diagnosed with acute leukaemia 13 months ago and says he feels grateful to savour simple pleasures again
The first week of pre-season training at Wolverhampton Wanderers was over and Carl Ikeme had just popped out to buy some paint for the house when his mobile started to ring. His world was about to be turned upside down. “It was the doctor at Wolves,” Ikeme says. “I remember him talking about Stiliyan Petrov and Geoff Thomas, and I knew what it was. I was devastated.”
On a still summer afternoon in Sutton Coldfield, in the relaxed family home where his two little girls are happily playing, Ikeme has been reflecting on that awful moment 13 months ago when he was diagnosed with acute leukaemia and the life-changing journey that followed.
Ikeme’s career as a professional footballer is over because of the toll that chemotherapy has taken on his body, but the good news – the only news that matters, really – is that he is in “complete
remission” and living at home again with the loved ones who inspired his recovery. “I was 31 when I was diagnosed – it’s young,” Ikeme says, puffing out his cheeks. “There’s a lot of life to live at that age. Obviously you want to be around to see your children grow up – and you don’t need any more motivation than that to pull through it.”
The level of support has overwhelmed him at times. Wolves fans held aloft a banner at every game last season, a six-figure sum has been raised for Cure Leukaemia in Ikeme’s name, and heartfelt messages flowed in from all over the world, including the ‘goalkeepers’ union’.
Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas and Peter Schmeichel were among an all-star cast that paid tribute to him, singing “one Carl Ikeme” on a three-minute-long video. “They’re the three keepers that I really admire, so to hear them actually say your name and show their support, it was crazy,” says Ikeme, smiling.
An affable and down-to-earth character, Ikeme smiles a lot during the two hours that are spent in his company. It is certainly easy to see why he is such a popular figure at Wolves, where he made 207 appearances after joining the club as a 14-year-old, and how his positive outlook on life has helped so much over the past year. Little more than two weeks after he had been diagnosed with leukaemia, Ikeme posted a picture on Twitter from his hospital bed, saying: “Still happy, still grateful”. Another photo followed on deadline day, six weeks later, under the caption: “Ikeme transfers from one room to another. Medical underway”.
It is remarkable to think he could remain so sanguine. “I was properly grateful anyway before all this happened,” Ikeme says. “I’m grateful that I’ve got my family and friends, for what I’ve been able to achieve in football, for having a roof over my head. And even in that situation that I was in, there’s still someone who’s worse off. There are people who are diagnosed with cancer that is terminal. I was given a chance – and I’m grateful to have that.”
Carl Ikeme made nearly 200 appearances for Wolves in a 15 year career at the club. Photograph: James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images
Yet for all his admirable courage and the wider sense of perspective that he talks about, there is no getting away from the fact that it has been extremely hard for Ikeme and his family over the past year or so, especially in the early days. Saba, Ikeme’s wife, has been a rock throughout and it is deeply moving listening to Ikeme recall the moment when he had to explain to her what the doctor had said.
“She was the first person I told. I was obviously upset, as you would be after that sort of news. I was in shock. I got back home and thought: ‘I need to tell Saba.’ I called her and I couldn’t get it out on the phone, but she knew something was up … Sorry, I’m getting emotional,” says Ikeme, as he pauses for a moment while telling the story. “I got back and Saba came in and I told her the news.
She was nine months pregnant at the time, due next week. I’ve never seen her cry the way she cried. It was tough.”
Even though Ikeme knew something was not right during that first week of pre-season, he never imagined there was anything serious wrong. Much of the close-season had been spent in the gym with Matt Murray, the former Wolves goalkeeper, and Ikeme reported back on 26 June feeling good and looking forward to working under Nuno Espírito Santo, the club’s new manager. The first indication there was any sort of problem came after some routine blood tests.
“My platelets had come back a little bit low, which the doc alerted me to straight away, but it still wasn’t a cause of concern. He just thought I might have had a viral infection,” Ikeme says. “A couple of days later we had a tough session on the pitch and we did another 45-minute gym session afterwards. I came back and had a nosebleed. I wouldn’t normally tell the doctor about something like that but I did. I complained about having a headache during training as well. So we repeated the blood test and it was still low.
“The doctor pulled me out of training and said we would go and see a specialist on the Monday and he could guide us as to what to do. So I went to see Manos [Nikolousis, a consultant haematologist] and they did another blood test and checked my glands and still thought it could be a viral infection. Then a day or two later I had a phone call from the doctor, saying that I had cancer.”
Although Ikeme dreaded the thought of breaking the news to Saba and his parents – “No one should have to tell their mum and dad that” – he tried to put his emotions to one side as quickly as possible.
“I had to go and see Manos in the evening and speak to him about the plan. As soon as I knew the plan, it was like: ‘My head’s on this now.’”
There was only a brief moment, Ikeme says, when he felt sorry for himself. “The first day or two maybe, you do think: ‘Why me? I’m not a bad person.’ But then afterwards, I thought: ‘I’ve been overly blessed in so many ways that other people haven’t. I had a baby daughter, another one coming, I got to live my dream by playing football for a living, so why not me?’”
Ikeme told Wolves he wanted a statement out as soon as possible to enable him to concentrate fully on his treatment. That announcement left everyone at Molineux in a state of shock and reverberated across the football world, resonating with one former player in particular. Petrov, the former Aston Villa and Celtic midfielder, had been diagnosed with acute leukaemia in 2012 and it says much for the Bulgarian that he wanted to visit Ikeme within 24 hours of the news being released.
“I’d never met Stan before,” Ikeme says. “But he came to the hospital. He had the same sort of leukaemia as me so he was letting me know what was in store. It was nice to have someone who had been through it, who could talk about it and give you guidance at certain points of the year. He could really relate. And when I got to Manchester, Joe Thompson [the Rochdale midfielder] was getting treated there, so he came in to see me. They both offered their support and I knew I could call them if I needed to ask them anything, so it was good to have that.”
Ikeme moved to the Christie cancer hospital in Manchester within a couple of weeks of being diagnosed and it was there, lying in a hospital bed, that he found out he had become a dad for the second time. “On 16 July, 10 days after the announcement went out,” Ikeme says, smiling. “I was on FaceTime, it cut off and next thing I knew, 20 minutes later, Maya was born. It was crazy to think that you’re not there for the birth of your child. But I had a pretty good reason.”
Carl Ikeme: ‘I’ve been overly blessed in so many ways that other people haven’t’. Photograph: Andrew Fox for the Guardian
Ikeme stayed in Manchester for the next 11 months as he underwent intense chemotherapy. He returned for “little spurts”, including on Christmas Day, and even surprised his Wolves teammates on one occasion by turning up at the team hotel in Birmingham, just before they played at St Andrew’s.
“I was in between treatment, so I popped in and quickly said hello,” Ikeme says. “There was a bit of an infection risk. But I wanted to see everyone to let them know that they were still in my thoughts.”
As the weeks and months passed by in Manchester, Ikeme kept a keen eye on what was going on at Wolves. The club set up a live streaming service in his hospital bed, which meant that he could watch every Wolves game, and Nuno was regularly on the phone, asking Ikeme how he was feeling but also involving him in what was happening on the pitch by seeking his thoughts on the performances. It was a nice touch and genuine, too.
It is hard to imagine, though, what was going through Ikeme’s mind as Wolves cantered to promotion. He had been the club’s No 1 for the previous five years, helping the team to recover from the blow of slipping into League One, and was now missing out on one of their most successful seasons. The timing felt cruel, all the more so because of the World Cup finals in Russia, where Ikeme would have been Nigeria’s first-choice goalkeeper.
“I’d love to have been part of the season going up but my journey was just different and that’s fine,” Ikeme says. “The World Cup was probably a bit more difficult to take. The World Cup, to me, is the pinnacle of football. No disrespect to Wolves, because I loved playing every minute for them, but the World Cup is a different stage – they’re the memories you have as a kid. So that was something that I’d knew I’d miss out on and never get the chance to do again.”
There was, of course, a much bigger picture. Ikeme wanted only to get better and he set himself a target to be out of hospital in time for his eldest daughter’s fifth birthday. Mila would not be disappointed – on 23 June Ikeme announced that he was in “complete remission” and looking forward to getting some normality back in his life. “It still doesn’t feel like it’s over because I’ve still got treatment going on for two years,” Ikeme says. “But it was a relief to get that news and know that I could go back home.”
By then his football career was over. Adrian Bloor, the consultant haematologist in Manchester, had given Ikeme the answer he had prepared himself for when he asked about the possibility of playing again. “It wasn’t a shock,” Ikeme says. “I wasn’t expecting him to say: ‘Go and get your boots on, mate, and get back to training.’”
It will take time for everything to sink in and Ikeme is still turning over in his mind what he would like to do next. Writing a book about his experiences in the past year is something that appeals, media work is another possibility and he has not ruled out going into coaching – there is already an offer on the table from Nigeria. “I spoke to coach [Gernot] Rohr at Nigeria and he said I can come in as an assistant to him. That’s unreal and it’s something that I’m interested in.”
For the moment, however, Ikeme is more than happy to take things step by step and savour life’s simple but beautiful pleasures. “It’s just enjoyable to wake up with your children every day,” he says. “Little things, like eating food at home, enjoying being around Saba, taking a walk to the park and just watching the kids run about – that’s all I need.”
On August 4th 2006, Sri Lankan troops lined up and summarily executed 17 aid workers with the French NGO Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in Muttur. Sixteen of the aid workers were Tamil, one Muslim. Twelve years on, no one has been held to account for this crime.
"Today all our thoughts are with the families of the victims," ACF said, calling the murders 'cowardly'.
"Twelve years ago, men and women, humanitarian workers, were executed. We don't forget them. Nor do we forget that justice has still not been given."
"We demand always, justice for Muttur," the organisation said, as staff marked twelve years since the massacre.
Marking 11 years since the massacre, ACF said,
“The Sri Lankan government has failed in its duty to uphold international humanitarian law and to protect civilians and aid workers, and it has failed in its duty to deliver justice for the perpetrators of the massacre of these 17 humanitarians,”
Condemning the massacre as a war crime, ACF said in 2007:
“The Muttur slaughter can't be considered only as a "collateral damage" during the Muttur battle: our team has been specifically and deliberately targeted, their death has been organised execution style with bullets shot in their head. Everything was consciously and brutally planned: the victims were kneeling, unarmed and defenceless. The culprits of this massacre are the ones who were carrying the arms. We can assert that this massacre is a war crime in violation of the Geneva Conventions."
In 2013 ACF reiterated its call for justice, stating that only an international inquiry would ensure it.
“ACF has closely followed the domestic investigation only to become convinced that the Sri Lankan justice system is incapable of investigating the case.”
“ACF has also collected information which reveals that the 17 humanitarian aid workers were likely assassinated by members of Sri Lankan security forces and the criminals must have been covered up by Sri Lankan top authorities," the organisation said in December 2013.
“ACF believes that only an independent international investigation can effectively lead to prosecution of the killers.”
On the tenth anniversary of the massacre, Human Rights Watch reiterated the call for justice and said the massacre underscored the need for an international role in any accountability mechanism by Sri Lanka as the only means to ensuring justice.
“The failure to provide justice for the ACF massacre is Exhibit A in the breakdown of accountability for serious crimes during Sri Lanka’s civil war,” HRW's legal and policy director, James Ross said.
“The mishandling of the ACF case shows why a war crimes court needs international involvement to shield it from political pressures.”
Continual student agitations cripple the state higher education sector
2018-08-06
People in this country are unrelentingly exposed every day to a ceaseless media spectacle on alleged mega frauds involving well known personalities running in to millions of US Dollars. Those often hog headlines relate to gigantic scams on abuse of public funds. Sri Lanka has lived on borrowed money for years. Astronomical scale of borrowings resorted to by successive regimes have led to a draconian debt-trap, a proverbial Sword of Damocles being held on the common masses. US$ is going up rapidly as stock market is dropping. It presages that things are not alright as claimed. Colossal public accusations made against leading figures manifest the gravity of political chicanery, mismanagement and screw ups persisted for long. Seemingly they involve reprehensible abuse and squander of public funds on sinister self-serving schemes at the expense of pressing public needs for which such funds are earmarked. Whilst misuse and extravagance of public money lead to severe economic woes on poor, distress and agony further exacerbate when such funds mostly represent borrowings carrying exorbitant rates of interest. This causes economic woes to further compound by greater margins.
People thus end up having to cough up more out of meager incomes to pay multitude of taxes and levies to finance mounting debt burdens occasioned by financial sins committed by political masters, who not so long ago had been entrusted with the sacred duty of prudently managing public purse conforming to best practices of financial discipline and accountability. It is a cruel irony that poorest of the poor unable to make ends meet are made to pay taxes through the nose to make up for the fiscal adversities caused by acts of skulduggery on the part of those ascended to power through gullible poor man’s vote. Whilst poor man is made to pay taxes those accused of swindling are able to indulge in a host of state funded tax free benefits and luxuries ultimately paid by the poorest of poor.
This phenomenon is alleged to have persisted in varying degree under different degrees. However fact remains despite the gravity of the scale of the alleged abuses and violations, precious little has in fact been done to bring real culprits to book. It points to painful delays and glitches inherent in the Sri Lankan legal system susceptible to exploitation by corrupt elements wielding financial and political clout. Moreover such delays could also be attributable to possible unpardonable offences of complicity and betrayal of public trust on the part of those ruling the roost. Anti corruption action targeting big fish except few exceptions has largely been confined to empty rhetoric burst out to steal limelight and hoodwink the electorate majority of whom still remains naive uninformed and easily gullible. Big or small many politicians stand accused in common man’s court having failed to uphold high standard of morals and financial integrity expected of public roles for which they have been ensconced in seats of power. The body politic has become a stinking quagmire with fingers pointed by rivals groups at one another in accusations and counter-accusations. Whilst some are accused of colossal wheeler dealing and crafty machinations, others are also accused of protecting traffickers and offenders.
"A general decline in the standard of discipline across the society with noble human traits like morality, empathy, camaraderie that have kept people closely knit for centuries seem to be fading away"
There is media frenzy of an unprecedented scale. It is seemingly driven inter alia by crass commercialism and populism with political undertones. Hyped up star craze is engulfing people from very young to old and not even toddlers are spared. Tender age ones are made to perform gyrating acts of dancing to the tunes of ghetto blasters in spectacular display of jitterbugs and jigs mostly emulating Indian tinsel world dance sequences. Night time prime slots are hogged by mega tele serials depicting soap operas followed by “near bed time” political talk shows of clashing personalities washing dirty linen in limelight spewing acrimony hostility and repugnant venom.
TV news bulletins are quite often replete with vivid portrayal of heinous acts of criminality involving murder, rape, shooting, looting, commotions, theft etc which sometimes are supported by graphic CCTV footage. There is hardly any news that does not report fatal road accidents causing destruction and claiming innocent lives, a menace fast becoming one of the dominant causes of mortality in Sri Lanka. Newspapers devote mammoth space to delve on the agendas of leading personalities vying to grab power. There is extensive reporting on various acts of mala fide committed by many in and an out of the body politic aspiring to reach pinnacle of political office, that goes counter to the principles of good governance and rule of law. There are allegations and counter allegations and finger-pointing smacking of wheeling and dealing. Obviously there is much more than what meets the common man’s eyes, as he is mostly kept in the dark on closed door machinations.
How much of space time and effort are devoted by media on matters of substance that enrich the lives of people is no-brainer. Have institutions of media become selectively partisan in approach, or if media are serving with discrimination as mouthpieces of a coterie of powerful shelving core responsibility to be the voice of the voiceless is a question raise.
"People have to cough up more out of meager incomes to pay multitude of taxes and levies to finance mounting debt burdens occasioned by financial sins committed by political masters"
There is general decline in the standard of discipline across the society with noble human traits like morality, empathy, camaraderie that have kept people closely knit for centuries seem to be fading away, whilst lack of tolerance, empathy and fellow feeling are witnessing an unprecedented rise. There is a marked propensity towards brutalization of human conduct as witnessed in everyday occurrences involving harmful acts. Any unintentional misstep, slip, or oversight due to whatever reason seldom passes without evoking disproportionately harsher rebuke irrespective of what causes it.
For example, behaviour of motorists particularly three-wheeler drivers is a case in point. There is absolute no discipline on the part of motorists particularly omnibus and three-wheeler drivers. This is only the tip of the iceberg. This country is seeing growing political turmoil and break-down and issues in multitude of sectors from educations, law enforcement and energy to health. There is agitation all over and everyone is demanding his/her pound of flesh. Everyone from public sector employees, professionals like Doctors, University Lecturers, and School Teachers to young undergraduates is agitating. They often end up in clashes and violent demonstrations disrupting the day to day lives and resulting in severe economic losses. The phenomenon of escalating non-tolerance is noticeable in a whole gamut of sectors and spheres.
There is fishing in troubled waters by opportunists in the garbs of body politic to derive mileage wherever possible. They spew venom as they please for their own benefits. The ultimate goal being grabbing power at any cost that paves the way to achieve other selfish ends in an endless cycle of events.
Imran Khan
2018-08-04 
I haven’t played cricket with Imran Khan, the newly elected prime minister of Pakistan, but I did interview him back in 2005 when only a rare foreign journalist was interested in him despite his fame as having been the world’s best cricketer. Now he has won a handsome political victory. 
The conflict has led to three wars with President Bill Clinton saying he was worried the next clash might lead to nuclear war. 
Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega (L) delivers a speech beside Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo (R), president of the National Commission for Verification, Reconciliation, Peace and Justice of the Sandinista government, on November 03, 2008 in Managua. (MIGUEL ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Carl Ikeme was forced to retire after his cancer diagnosis but has remained positive throughout his treatment. Photograph: Andrew Fox for the Guardian
Carl Ikeme made nearly 200 appearances for Wolves in a 15 year career at the club. Photograph: James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images
Carl Ikeme: ‘I’ve been overly blessed in so many ways that other people haven’t’. Photograph: Andrew Fox for the Guardian
