Today was Eid. For once it was Eid everywhere in the world, including in Pakistan where the usual farce around the sighting of the moon reached new heights. The science minister, Fawwad Chaudhry, was previously the information minister in which he characterised himself by a particularly jahil enthusiasm, like a gormless and corrupt Chemical Ali. He took his enthusiasm and jahilpan to his new portfolio, becoming overnight a defender of Science against Unreason. Last year he had a run in with the Ruet-e-Hilal committee, a group of doddering mullahs who suck on the teats of the public purse and revel in their importance annually when he declared that he was commissioning a Science-based App and announce the dates of Eid in advance, also based on Science. This would end the usual ritual of the mullahs climbing to their rooftops with a telescope of the Al Biruni vintage and then quarreling over sightings, leading to Eid on different days in different parts of the country. His app caused a little furore and he caved.
This year, clearly having stewed on the matter, on Saturday morning Fawwad Chaudry called a press conference. At this he announced that according to Science, the moon would be visible (weather conditions permitting) at these specific locations in the country at this specific time in the evening. Accordingly, Eid would be tomorrow, thank you and good bye. The mullahs of the Ruel-e-Hilal committee threw an almighty strop, advising the minister to stick to Science and leave Religion to them, and also to go build ventilators, why didn’t he? Then, at precisely the time announced, reports started coming in from the places Fawwad Chaudhry had listed, along with further reports that the Ruet-e-Hilal committee telephones appeared to have been left off the hook. Increasingly important people reported seeing the moon, culminating in retired generals. A senator from one of the localities went on television to express outrage that his remote and impoverished area was being ignored – was it not part of Pakistan? The chief minister of his province said he would announce Eid whether the Ruet-e-Hilal committee announced it or not. And then, late at night, the chair of the committee announced it would be Eid the next morning. So here we are.
Are for us here in Taipei – I made kheer for breakfast (quite poor) and wore new clothes and the GF bought me a hat as a gift. We walked to Da’an Forest Park where, rumour has it, there were egrets nesting in the trees around the lake and indeed there were hundreds there, all squabbling and squawking and pushing each other off branches, like creatures in Labyrinth. Dozens of turtles basking in the warm sun, after days of rain and clouds, watched them either imperturbably, or with silent horror, depending on one’s mood. Above us, in the branches, was a bright blue macaw, someone’s pet.
A little further on was a decaying stump of a tree surrounded by an orange fence. And ringing it were photographers, at least 70 of them, all with gigantic camouflage-print cameras on tripods, pointing towards the tree trunk. We lingered to see what they might be photographing, and spotted a small hole.Suddenly a tiny green bird flew out and all the cameras clicked like thunder. Just at that moment a passerby stepped in front of the hole and the bird and looked around in surprise at the cameras around him. There was a palpable sigh as the photographers settled back to wait for the bird to return.
In the evening we watched Knives Out, very light and amusing fare, just right for a Sunday evening. Shamefully, I didn’t recognise a single member of its mostly-star cast.