NPR foreign correspondent Julie McCarthy speaks to a packed Niemann Media Theatre on March 3, 2011.

NPR foreign correspondent Julie McCarthy speaks to a packed Niemann Media Theatre on March 3, 2011.

NPR correspondent in Pakistan speaks at Carthage

Julie McCarthy visited Carthage March 2-4 as
Carthage Distinguished Visitor: Journalist in Residence

March 8, 2011

Julie McCarthy has been a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio for nearly two decades. But her most hazardous assignment is probably her current one in turbulent Pakistan.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm underwater with a mask, because there are a lot of places the military won’t let me go," she said in a March 3 speech at Carthage. "Anti-American passions are never far beneath the surface, which makes it increasingly difficult for people like me to operate in Pakistan."

In January, a Pakistani governor was gunned down by one of his bodyguards in the capital city of Islamabad, "in the same shopping center where I shop," Ms. McCarthy said. The governor had opposed blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam, and many publicly celebrated the killing.

"The message to every liberal or progressive: Keep quiet, or you too could be killed," she told the audience. "An extremist view has seeped into much of the culture, especially youth."

The Kenosha native visited the College for three days before returning to Pakistan, where she opened an NPR bureau two years ago, during an era when many U.S. news organizations have been cutting back on their international coverage.

"That's a profound problem," she said in an interview after her speech. "It's never been more important to understand the world, and you can't understand it if you don't show up." At NPR, she added, "we haven't contracted" international coverage. "We've expanded our commitment to help Americans understand the world."

"It's never been more important to understand the world, and you can't understand it if you don't show up."

Ms. McCarthy said anti-American sermons are common at mosques in Pakistan, while "government schools toe a strict Islamic line. There is shrinking space for any kind of moderate space. Conspiracy theories are the national pastime in Pakistan."

What fuels discontent? Ms. McCarthy cited soaring costs for food, fuel and electricity, and a "youth bulge the likes of which they've never seen. Underemployment is crippling the aspirations of a younger generation." According to 1999 statistics, 31 percent of children under 5 are malnourished, and 18 percent of the population lives on $2 per day or less, "but I don't believe much has changed."

Responding to a question from the audience, Ms. McCarthy said the United States "can't pull the plug" on American involvement. "They have nuclear weapons."

While she seemed to downplay the likelihood Pakistan itself would use nuclear weapons, "there is deep concern that this vast nuclear-industrial complex might take bits and pieces (of nuclear components) and put them in hands where we don't want them. This is the kind of stuff that keeps Washington up at night. Anti-Americanism has reached its highest point."

But Ms. McCarthy also offered some reassuring notes. Unhappy Pakistanis can demonstrate freely, unlike Middle Eastern countries that have seen popular revolts in recent months.

Ms. McCarthy also doesn't see a military takeover, at least in the near future. "I don't believe the army wants to get back into the weeds of governing," she said. "They already call the shots behind the scenes."

The correspondent said Pakistan "is a deeply conservative culture. But do they vote extremists into office? No. I've encountered a lot of people, and they want a peaceful life."

Afterward, Ms. McCarthy said fundamentalist Islam in Pakistan is more akin to that in Saudi Arabia than that found in Iran.

"What's happened is a kind of hijacking, a politicization of the religion," she said, before stressing that "there's a big mass in the middle that's conservative, but not extremists, and want peace, like everybody in the world. Pakistan has always had ways to make sure it doesn't list too far, finding a curious balance."

During her talk, Ms. McCarthy also offered a generally positive view of the youth-fueled upheaval in several Middle Eastern countries. "It's not Tehran in 1979," she said, referring to the Islamic revolution in Iran. "This is the Arab World's Berlin Wall" toppling.

Ms. McCarthy said those who ousted longstanding authoritarian regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and have demonstrated in several other countries "were not animated by Islamic fundamentalism. It's about having police who aren't corrupt, governments that are accountable and inclusive, and education that leads to a job.

"The great lesson is that governments can no longer take their population for granted."

— Bill Kurtz, Carthage College