Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Nation In Terminal Decline
We are into 2010… another year of uncertainty another year of despair. Not much to be happy about.. 105 people killed when a car was blown up in a field packed with people watching a volley ball match. What to say….. what can we say.
The irony is that a lot of the countrymen still feel these hell mongers are innocent people who are doing this as part of religious duty. We are a nation which doesn’t stand united against this menace. I sometimes wonder if we have a way out of this mess. Somehow we are nation which never makes mistakes it is always someone else who has caused the misery. It is either the US trying to break us apart or India fuelling insurgency but us we remain the most pious and internally united nation on earth….. all I can say is… WHAT A JOKE.
We are a nation with a self destruct button pressed. We don’t need India or Israel or anyone for that matter to destroy us. We do a darn good job ourselves.
60 years on we are an immature nation which is growing up with this inherent insecurity and fear of crumbling… Shahzad Roy said it very well…… since our childhood we have heard of nation in crisis. I wonder when the crisis will be over. Was the creation of the country by itself a crisis? Was it done in haste?
I have come up with an alternate point of view to satisfy my ownself. The phrasing of the problem actually drives your thought process. The reason we got Pakistan was because we felt the threat of Hindu domination in united India. The psyche of Indian domination runs wild with us. To me the slogan was and is defeatist. It is like leaving the field on the threat of losing the matching and crying foul.
We were given an option to be a Jew in US or be a black in US. We opted the way of the blacks who decided to return to Africa to their roots and place where they are not dominated by Whites… they went to form the country of Liberia. I don’t want to comment on what happened there but I can assure you the result was more or less the same as that we see today in Pakistan.
For 60 years our politicians, our army, mullahs and our intelligentsia have kept people cocooned in the threat of India and hence etched the defeatist mindset in us. We talk of everything in comparison to India… IT growth faster than India, Nuclear know how more than India and it goes on and on. Unfortunately nothing really is true but what the heck we can still fool a few million innocent people after all we have done so for 60 years. So when Musharaf talked of being proud nation and taking decision in our interest and tried to create a different track of thought he was the worst person on earth. He gave the idea that was in negation to the set ideals of the country’s corrupt and established elite.
I subscribe to Musharaf’s facebook page and find people with a messianic idea about one person changing their fate… unfortunately it wont happen. Survival of Pakistan is based on the revolution of mind… a revolution in which we throw away our mental bind and instead of being obsessed with India and Israel for once get obsessed with ourselves.
You cant treat a patient till the patient believes he is sick. We don’t believe we are sick despite being in terminal decline….
The irony is that a lot of the countrymen still feel these hell mongers are innocent people who are doing this as part of religious duty. We are a nation which doesn’t stand united against this menace. I sometimes wonder if we have a way out of this mess. Somehow we are nation which never makes mistakes it is always someone else who has caused the misery. It is either the US trying to break us apart or India fuelling insurgency but us we remain the most pious and internally united nation on earth….. all I can say is… WHAT A JOKE.
We are a nation with a self destruct button pressed. We don’t need India or Israel or anyone for that matter to destroy us. We do a darn good job ourselves.
60 years on we are an immature nation which is growing up with this inherent insecurity and fear of crumbling… Shahzad Roy said it very well…… since our childhood we have heard of nation in crisis. I wonder when the crisis will be over. Was the creation of the country by itself a crisis? Was it done in haste?
I have come up with an alternate point of view to satisfy my ownself. The phrasing of the problem actually drives your thought process. The reason we got Pakistan was because we felt the threat of Hindu domination in united India. The psyche of Indian domination runs wild with us. To me the slogan was and is defeatist. It is like leaving the field on the threat of losing the matching and crying foul.
We were given an option to be a Jew in US or be a black in US. We opted the way of the blacks who decided to return to Africa to their roots and place where they are not dominated by Whites… they went to form the country of Liberia. I don’t want to comment on what happened there but I can assure you the result was more or less the same as that we see today in Pakistan.
For 60 years our politicians, our army, mullahs and our intelligentsia have kept people cocooned in the threat of India and hence etched the defeatist mindset in us. We talk of everything in comparison to India… IT growth faster than India, Nuclear know how more than India and it goes on and on. Unfortunately nothing really is true but what the heck we can still fool a few million innocent people after all we have done so for 60 years. So when Musharaf talked of being proud nation and taking decision in our interest and tried to create a different track of thought he was the worst person on earth. He gave the idea that was in negation to the set ideals of the country’s corrupt and established elite.
I subscribe to Musharaf’s facebook page and find people with a messianic idea about one person changing their fate… unfortunately it wont happen. Survival of Pakistan is based on the revolution of mind… a revolution in which we throw away our mental bind and instead of being obsessed with India and Israel for once get obsessed with ourselves.
You cant treat a patient till the patient believes he is sick. We don’t believe we are sick despite being in terminal decline….
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Climate Change - Time For East To Rise
When the threat of nuclear war loomed large on the western hemisphere people from Europe to America started planning for the eventful day when USA or USSR will use the weapons to annihilate each other.
Some moved to far away countries like New Zealand and some built bunkers in their houses and stock piled food to last for years. People found solutions from very basic to technologically innovative. From GPS to computers all owe their development to the era of nuclear horror so supposed horror.
They did this for a war that never happened. The threat never became real…. The one questions comes to mind is was all that lost? I wonder if we would have been at this point technologically if the threat wasn’t there…..
The Hopenhagen the wishful name of Copenhagen has been let down…. I wonder what we achieved. How naïve and myopic human race actually is….we deny the danger even if it is on the face of it and only wish we did otherwise after committing a mistake. For denialist I fail to understand how they can be skeptical of the changes….. we are mercilessly using the bounty and manipulating the land mass beyond recognition and doubting that it will bring some kind of adverse reaction….
I was shocked to hear India and China collaborated to stifle any real accord…. Why? do we believe we did justice? Since when carbon and development go hand in hand? Haven’t we changed the technology?
The situation is more like what we faced 60 years ago when nuclear age dawned on us. We can use the technology to improve our lives and make it grow. We have the resource to make it happen and still India and China which can lead the world in renewables are shying from it. Take the case of solar powered street lamps….cant we get economies of scales in India and China to make them cheap? Why do we always have to lag behind west? Why cant the east for once grab the opportunity and decide to lead the way….
It is not about blame game… what we did or they did and we don’t get to do has nothing to do with the situation. The situation is that West messed it and we have a historic opportunity to address it.
Copenhagen was not Hopenhagen but if India and China want to lead they will have to make Mexico a success with binding and aggressive emissions cuts agreed.
Some moved to far away countries like New Zealand and some built bunkers in their houses and stock piled food to last for years. People found solutions from very basic to technologically innovative. From GPS to computers all owe their development to the era of nuclear horror so supposed horror.
They did this for a war that never happened. The threat never became real…. The one questions comes to mind is was all that lost? I wonder if we would have been at this point technologically if the threat wasn’t there…..
The Hopenhagen the wishful name of Copenhagen has been let down…. I wonder what we achieved. How naïve and myopic human race actually is….we deny the danger even if it is on the face of it and only wish we did otherwise after committing a mistake. For denialist I fail to understand how they can be skeptical of the changes….. we are mercilessly using the bounty and manipulating the land mass beyond recognition and doubting that it will bring some kind of adverse reaction….
I was shocked to hear India and China collaborated to stifle any real accord…. Why? do we believe we did justice? Since when carbon and development go hand in hand? Haven’t we changed the technology?
The situation is more like what we faced 60 years ago when nuclear age dawned on us. We can use the technology to improve our lives and make it grow. We have the resource to make it happen and still India and China which can lead the world in renewables are shying from it. Take the case of solar powered street lamps….cant we get economies of scales in India and China to make them cheap? Why do we always have to lag behind west? Why cant the east for once grab the opportunity and decide to lead the way….
It is not about blame game… what we did or they did and we don’t get to do has nothing to do with the situation. The situation is that West messed it and we have a historic opportunity to address it.
Copenhagen was not Hopenhagen but if India and China want to lead they will have to make Mexico a success with binding and aggressive emissions cuts agreed.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Am I First A Pakistani Or A Muslim
The year end for us Pakistanis was not so unfamiliar. Like last year and the year before last we ended our year on a bloody note. 40 people killed in a religious procession in my dearest city of Karachi followed by looting and rampage. Targeted it was and also the looting was meant to stir the religious sentiments of the people of the city so they can pitch once again, against each other. Failed they will be as people in the city do realize that the aftermath of the disaster was driven to destroy the civil fabric of the city.
We Pakistanis sit and wonder how can anyone be so ruthless and cruel to kill a person trying to express their right of religious freedom…. Well I somehow am getting sick of this presumed innocence on part of the larger population. I was going through Pervez Musharaf’s facebook page in which he had sent X’Mas Greetings to the Pakistanis Christians and so many of my so rightist Pakistanis spent no time condemning him for doing so and accusing him of blasphemy. I wish I could do something for such mentally deranged people.
We are the most judgmental nation on earth. We will be stealing electricity and along side it accusing government of doing nothing to solve the electricity problem. Will through our garbage out on the street in front of our neighbours and accuse the government of not taking care of cleanliness. We would skip prayers but pass judgment on people of being non-muslims for not practicing the religion in true spirit. I had a colleague who was very traditional and believed his wife needs to take care of the house and the children. He though loved to dance so never missed any Rain Dance event while in Dubai and before leaving Dubai ensured he did last ritualistic visit to Bangkok. Then again being a Pakistani I am judging someone.
Coming back to the topic of problems of our country we are also a nation that lives off bad news. We need bad news….. watch our televisions and you will find no good thing being promoted. You will find zillion so called experts sitting down and giving you a doomsday scenario of the country and providing solutions for which they don’t do anything other than sitting on their big fat back sides.
We are a country so doomed….. 60 years on and we don’t have a nation. Our we Pakistanis first or Muslims first. If we are muslims first then why did we fight for a nation called Pakistan? We have muslims in India and all over so the identity is not restricted to geographical land mass so was the partition wrong? If we are Pakistanis first then we have to acknowledge our diversity… we have Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims we have Christians and Hindus and they all are Pakistanis with equal right. If we can conclude the simple question rest will fall in place and if we don’t then it is unfortunate but I would have to agree that the battle of world peace would hinge in battles in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
We Pakistanis sit and wonder how can anyone be so ruthless and cruel to kill a person trying to express their right of religious freedom…. Well I somehow am getting sick of this presumed innocence on part of the larger population. I was going through Pervez Musharaf’s facebook page in which he had sent X’Mas Greetings to the Pakistanis Christians and so many of my so rightist Pakistanis spent no time condemning him for doing so and accusing him of blasphemy. I wish I could do something for such mentally deranged people.
We are the most judgmental nation on earth. We will be stealing electricity and along side it accusing government of doing nothing to solve the electricity problem. Will through our garbage out on the street in front of our neighbours and accuse the government of not taking care of cleanliness. We would skip prayers but pass judgment on people of being non-muslims for not practicing the religion in true spirit. I had a colleague who was very traditional and believed his wife needs to take care of the house and the children. He though loved to dance so never missed any Rain Dance event while in Dubai and before leaving Dubai ensured he did last ritualistic visit to Bangkok. Then again being a Pakistani I am judging someone.
Coming back to the topic of problems of our country we are also a nation that lives off bad news. We need bad news….. watch our televisions and you will find no good thing being promoted. You will find zillion so called experts sitting down and giving you a doomsday scenario of the country and providing solutions for which they don’t do anything other than sitting on their big fat back sides.
We are a country so doomed….. 60 years on and we don’t have a nation. Our we Pakistanis first or Muslims first. If we are muslims first then why did we fight for a nation called Pakistan? We have muslims in India and all over so the identity is not restricted to geographical land mass so was the partition wrong? If we are Pakistanis first then we have to acknowledge our diversity… we have Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims we have Christians and Hindus and they all are Pakistanis with equal right. If we can conclude the simple question rest will fall in place and if we don’t then it is unfortunate but I would have to agree that the battle of world peace would hinge in battles in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Eid Al Adha In Karachi
The preparation for eid in Pakistan is becoming more and more technology driven with online purchase of animals to the decorations. More and more we are getting sucked into the material world and while preparation are normally in full gear atleast 2 weeks before the day of sacrifice somehow the spirit it is expected to invoke dont seem to be anywhere near.
Evermore we are interested in putting up a good show with the value of the animal telling what your social status is supposed to be so we now hear people spending millions to get a good animal.... and that is not it... one animal is not enough... it has to be a few animals atleast to ensure we have been able to get the full celebrations and then the slogan all is being done so poor people can have a good meal as all this meat is obviously not going to end up on our platter. A convenient argument indeed.
Not only this... we have given our kids an insane notion that watching the animal bleed to death is an exciting event that is why our brothers and children are capturing the moment of kill on camera. Then with the advent of movie cameras and mobile phones video enabled we will see alot of it ending up on Youtube and Facebook supposedly for delight of others. I wonder what is different between us and the cheering crowds in a Colosseum enjoying a good kill. We just cant seem to have enough...... from bombs exploding all across the country one could have expected nation to have ended up being a bit sobre but..... sorry that is not really it. We are a nation undeterred..... our ways no matter how corrupted seems to remain.
The blood from the animal has to flow out of the street.... and we will not make any effort to clean the mess create after the cull. Oh how can we... we are too busy celebrating the festival with RELIGIOUS FERVOUR.....
I am a pro-animal person so I may sound alot crazier but I believe if we are about to slaughter an animal we should do it with humality. I believe the idea is not to have good meat but to answer to what Allah has asked us to do without questioning despite the fact that it is difficult. Well I believe for us killing that animal really isnt difficult. It is very easy... I mean our bros have killed alot of innocent people in the past year without remorse.
I know alot of our kids would learn through text book why the sacrifice has been done but we as a unit never try to put the feeling of humality in our kids so they can appreciate the meaning of this sacrifice and to tell them how difficult it is to do it but we are bounded by the edict.
There is a talk of alot of despondency in the country due to the current state of affairs and all of us are waiting for a knight in shining armour to save us from these perils. I find this mindset disturbing but then when I see our everyday attitude it all seems to make sense. The mess we create is not for us to clear but for others to foot. We throw our garbage out of the house we expect the municipal council to clean and we dont want to pay taxes or share in any solutions. It is not our problem... government is suppose to make life easy even if we are hell bent on making it worse for ourselves. When things will go wrong we will know exactly how bad the municipal council was in doing its business and when something good is being done... no good is good enough for us.....
I just dont seem to recognize my country anymore. It is on a path I have no understanding of. It is not just me but alot of educated masses are sitting on the wings to get an opportunity to leave. The more people leave the more insanity prevails as saner elements seem to leave leaving either old people or insane elements taking charge.
Do I expect things to change? No.... will things improve.... No....
Friday, November 13, 2009
Violence
I was on my way to Karachi for a business meeting and the flight was delayed so I opened up my e-mail and started checking it… one of my friends in living in Laos sent an email being upset by an event that took place near the place she lives…. She described the event as follows;
This morning Bee (my maid) told me about an accident that happened to her friend last month. The guy was driving his motor bike on a road around the corner where I live and was hit by a large truck full of sand. The truck-driver pulled over and checked out the guy who was lying on the street severely wounded, but still alive. In Belgium any person would call an ambulance or even a MUG to try to save the guy. Not in Laos. The driver got back into his truck and drove it back and forwards over the guy, twice to make sure the poor man was certainly dead. (we would call this murder)
This seems to be common practice here. If the guy survives, the driver would have to pay for all the hospital and medical costs for as long as the guy suffers from the accident. If the guy is dead, he only has to pay a single fee once to the guy’s family and be done with it. Everything is about money, and money only, something people here don’t have. In this case the truck was owned by a road construction company, and that company’s insurance paid the family fee. The driver himself was jailed for 1 week and then released with no further consequence, and zero Kips to pay.
I sat there at loss wondering how to respond to her mail…. Earlier in the morning… before leaving my home I heard that once again a bomb has exploded in Peshawar killing two people and injuring scores…. Seems to be pretty common in my country these days.
I sat there wondering do I hold the moral right to express my disgust on the event when my only countrymen are committing crimes of similar magnitude or beyond….
One wonders what drives us? We humans have given all animals some kind of trait like fox is scheming, sharks are vicious, bear are dangerous…. Where infact the most dangerous and ruthless of all predators are humans. Animals instincts are matter of their survival. People know a fed shark will not attack but you cant be sure that a fully fed human wont kill.
We have single handedly annihilated species from the face of the earth and captured and played with many in circus arena!
What happened in Srebrenica when Serbs killed 8000 muslim men in front of the eyes of Dutch “PEACE KEEPERS” to Abu Gharib humans have a tendency of showing the most ruthless and cruel side of their existence and continue to live without remorse. Is there s kind of mutation in our genes that makes this really cruel cannabilistic and sadiest streak to prevail…. Are we all made up of it? Why is boxing or ring wrestling such a big money spinner… I think humans live of the pleasure of kill….
Were the Dutch peacekeepers innocent by standers or relishing the scent of a kill I cant judge but one thing is for sure no one can be naïve…
My post is not meant as an indictment of Dutch Peacekeepers but a simple indictment of human race.
Just sit back and imagine…… how many millions have we killed as part of our selfishness and hatred and lust…. How many… humans, animals and plants…. One wonders how can one not appreciate the beauty of life and how can you not be touched and changed for ever when you hold a new born…. A human, an animal or a bird…. The beauty of that person can melt any…. And today we selfishly destroy everything and we have very good and profitable reasons for it…
From extinction of rhinos to possible extinction of its own race and from rain forest to polar ice cap we have not left anything untouched….
So one thing we can be sure of… till this world is functioning we can be sure of cruelty and ruthlessness demonstrated by humans and suffering in all form and at all levels.
This morning Bee (my maid) told me about an accident that happened to her friend last month. The guy was driving his motor bike on a road around the corner where I live and was hit by a large truck full of sand. The truck-driver pulled over and checked out the guy who was lying on the street severely wounded, but still alive. In Belgium any person would call an ambulance or even a MUG to try to save the guy. Not in Laos. The driver got back into his truck and drove it back and forwards over the guy, twice to make sure the poor man was certainly dead. (we would call this murder)
This seems to be common practice here. If the guy survives, the driver would have to pay for all the hospital and medical costs for as long as the guy suffers from the accident. If the guy is dead, he only has to pay a single fee once to the guy’s family and be done with it. Everything is about money, and money only, something people here don’t have. In this case the truck was owned by a road construction company, and that company’s insurance paid the family fee. The driver himself was jailed for 1 week and then released with no further consequence, and zero Kips to pay.
I sat there at loss wondering how to respond to her mail…. Earlier in the morning… before leaving my home I heard that once again a bomb has exploded in Peshawar killing two people and injuring scores…. Seems to be pretty common in my country these days.
I sat there wondering do I hold the moral right to express my disgust on the event when my only countrymen are committing crimes of similar magnitude or beyond….
One wonders what drives us? We humans have given all animals some kind of trait like fox is scheming, sharks are vicious, bear are dangerous…. Where infact the most dangerous and ruthless of all predators are humans. Animals instincts are matter of their survival. People know a fed shark will not attack but you cant be sure that a fully fed human wont kill.
We have single handedly annihilated species from the face of the earth and captured and played with many in circus arena!
What happened in Srebrenica when Serbs killed 8000 muslim men in front of the eyes of Dutch “PEACE KEEPERS” to Abu Gharib humans have a tendency of showing the most ruthless and cruel side of their existence and continue to live without remorse. Is there s kind of mutation in our genes that makes this really cruel cannabilistic and sadiest streak to prevail…. Are we all made up of it? Why is boxing or ring wrestling such a big money spinner… I think humans live of the pleasure of kill….
Were the Dutch peacekeepers innocent by standers or relishing the scent of a kill I cant judge but one thing is for sure no one can be naïve…
My post is not meant as an indictment of Dutch Peacekeepers but a simple indictment of human race.
Just sit back and imagine…… how many millions have we killed as part of our selfishness and hatred and lust…. How many… humans, animals and plants…. One wonders how can one not appreciate the beauty of life and how can you not be touched and changed for ever when you hold a new born…. A human, an animal or a bird…. The beauty of that person can melt any…. And today we selfishly destroy everything and we have very good and profitable reasons for it…
From extinction of rhinos to possible extinction of its own race and from rain forest to polar ice cap we have not left anything untouched….
So one thing we can be sure of… till this world is functioning we can be sure of cruelty and ruthlessness demonstrated by humans and suffering in all form and at all levels.
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