Joint India-Pakistan venture for peace in Afghanistan
The suggestion seems quite reasonable but alas, it will remains wishful thinking considering the huge trust deficit between India and Pakistan at present. Two countries which have not been able to sort out their bilateral discords, expecting them to join hands to set someone's else house in order is asking too much. Excerpts from Prem Shankar Ja's article in Hindustan Times:
The only constructive course left open to Pakistan is to somehow rediscover the road to peace that the US and Nato have lost. This will involve getting them to declare a cease-fire, and brokering talks between the Karzai government and the Taliban. That can only happen if Nato and the US are prepared to accept that their present goal is unattainable. As New Delhi has found out in Kashmir, there are no economic remedies for political problems once blood has begun to flow. But Musharraf’s government is too heavily compromised by its past ambivalence towards Islamist militancy and jehad, to command the necessary credibility in Western eyes. It is also regarded with deep suspicion by Kabul. It cannot, therefore, bear this burden alone.
The only alternative — indeed, possibly the only way to restore lasting peace in Afghanistan — is for Pakistan and India to work together. India has almost as vital a stake in preventing the disintegration or Talibanisation of Pakistan as its own people do. It also has the necessary credibility both in Kabul and the Western capitals, and with the erstwhile Northern Alliance to complement Pakistan’s clout with the Pashtuns and the Taliban. And together they can offer Nato and the US an honourable way out of Afghanistan.
But India and Pakistan will only be able to do so if they cease to be mired in the past. They have to shed the inherited burden of distrust and learn to work with each other. The rise of global terrorism, the Bush national security doctrine, and the destruction of the Westphalian international order has given us ample reason to do so.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Indo-Russian Liaison
Earlier it was USA. Now comes Russia with its offer for transfer of civilian nuclear technology as well as other "non-civilian" technologies. India is wisely not puting all eggs in one basket and consequently, reaping the best of the both worlds.
On the other hand, our "Pak Sar Zameen" is still at a loss how to curry favor with jihadists and USA - without offending either side.
Earlier it was USA. Now comes Russia with its offer for transfer of civilian nuclear technology as well as other "non-civilian" technologies. India is wisely not puting all eggs in one basket and consequently, reaping the best of the both worlds.
On the other hand, our "Pak Sar Zameen" is still at a loss how to curry favor with jihadists and USA - without offending either side.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Americans spend more time with computer than spouse
Digital connections seem to be taking precedence over physical and social ones. :)
And I doubt if it is (or will be) unique to Americans.
Computer have turned the world into global village but it seems they will keep the divorce lawyers of the global village in business. :)
Digital connections seem to be taking precedence over physical and social ones. :)
And I doubt if it is (or will be) unique to Americans.
Computer have turned the world into global village but it seems they will keep the divorce lawyers of the global village in business. :)
The past may not repeat itself
The beginning of the end (of U.S) ? In the long in the long haul, doomsayers may turn out to be right although, long-term predictions have rarely lived up to their promises! Excerpt from the article below:
The US prospered because it could attract the best brains in the world because of its open system. Except the communists, everyone was welcome and especially those who had some special skills. It was the liberal environment plus the economic opportunities that pulled the most innovative, hard working and brainy people to the US. These people put the US in a leading position in every field. Most US Nobel Prize winners are foreign-born or second-generation immigrants. The father of the US nuclear bomb, Albert Einstein, was also a Jewish immigrant from Germany. However, with the increasing dominance of its security-obsessed state and pro-rich economic system, the US has started losing its lustre. As a matter of fact, many long-time European residents of the US have started going back in recent years. If the prevailing suffocating environment continues—which I think it will— the steady stream of people with initiative coming to the US will dry up. Consequently, the US will slowly — not all at once though — go down the hill. It may take a few years or a few decades: it is hazardous to give a timeline for an ongoing historical trend. It will not be easy as it has been in the past for the American system to correct itself. The societal forces that culminated in the Bush presidency are still very strong and it is a difficult task for the Democrats to reverse the decadent trend. Therefore, it is not surprising that the US is losing its leadership in the financial world. Our friends back home would be better served if they do not confuse the American past with its future.
The beginning of the end (of U.S) ? In the long in the long haul, doomsayers may turn out to be right although, long-term predictions have rarely lived up to their promises! Excerpt from the article below:
The US prospered because it could attract the best brains in the world because of its open system. Except the communists, everyone was welcome and especially those who had some special skills. It was the liberal environment plus the economic opportunities that pulled the most innovative, hard working and brainy people to the US. These people put the US in a leading position in every field. Most US Nobel Prize winners are foreign-born or second-generation immigrants. The father of the US nuclear bomb, Albert Einstein, was also a Jewish immigrant from Germany. However, with the increasing dominance of its security-obsessed state and pro-rich economic system, the US has started losing its lustre. As a matter of fact, many long-time European residents of the US have started going back in recent years. If the prevailing suffocating environment continues—which I think it will— the steady stream of people with initiative coming to the US will dry up. Consequently, the US will slowly — not all at once though — go down the hill. It may take a few years or a few decades: it is hazardous to give a timeline for an ongoing historical trend. It will not be easy as it has been in the past for the American system to correct itself. The societal forces that culminated in the Bush presidency are still very strong and it is a difficult task for the Democrats to reverse the decadent trend. Therefore, it is not surprising that the US is losing its leadership in the financial world. Our friends back home would be better served if they do not confuse the American past with its future.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Kashmir: The Burning Paradise
Both India and Pakistan have been more interested in Kashmir - without giving a hoot about Kashmiris. The editorial of Daily Times is spot on.
Sadly, however, neither India nor Pakistan has done well by the people of Kashmir or the territories belonging to Kashmir. India has brutalised the poor Kashmiri Muslims for the past decade and a half without success. If the dispute is ever settled, it will have to heal the deep wounds it has inflicted on a small community of people traditionally known to be peaceful. Meanwhile, Pakistan has kept Azad (sic!) Kashmir as an appendage of the Kashmir Affairs Ministry in Islamabad and can hardly rebuke India for reducing the Srinagar Assembly to a puppet. It has detached the Northern Areas from Kashmir and then unleashed on the territory a long and bloody sectarian war whose consequences it will have to face for a long time. Just as after autonomy the Jammu and Kashmir state will be the first Muslim majority province in India, so the Northern Areas if given provincial status would be the first Shia majority province in the country. If both countries get to keep the territories they contest, they will have to work very hard to make the brutalised people forget what has happened.
Both India and Pakistan have been more interested in Kashmir - without giving a hoot about Kashmiris. The editorial of Daily Times is spot on.
Sadly, however, neither India nor Pakistan has done well by the people of Kashmir or the territories belonging to Kashmir. India has brutalised the poor Kashmiri Muslims for the past decade and a half without success. If the dispute is ever settled, it will have to heal the deep wounds it has inflicted on a small community of people traditionally known to be peaceful. Meanwhile, Pakistan has kept Azad (sic!) Kashmir as an appendage of the Kashmir Affairs Ministry in Islamabad and can hardly rebuke India for reducing the Srinagar Assembly to a puppet. It has detached the Northern Areas from Kashmir and then unleashed on the territory a long and bloody sectarian war whose consequences it will have to face for a long time. Just as after autonomy the Jammu and Kashmir state will be the first Muslim majority province in India, so the Northern Areas if given provincial status would be the first Shia majority province in the country. If both countries get to keep the territories they contest, they will have to work very hard to make the brutalised people forget what has happened.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Left standing up With Right
Far-Left of West acting as B-team of Far-Right of East! Nick Cohen brilliantly dissects the incosistencies of modern-day "progressives". Excerpts from the article:
Why is it that apologies for a militant Islam which stands for everything the liberal left is against come from the liberal left? Why will students hear a leftish postmodern theorist defend the exploitation of women in traditional cultures but not a crusty conservative don? After the American and British wars in Bosnia and Kosovo against Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansers, why were men and women of the left denying the existence of Serb concentration camps? As important, why did a European Union that daily announces its commitment to the liberal principles of human rights and international law do nothing as crimes against humanity took place just over its borders? Why is Palestine a cause for the liberal left, but not China, Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Congo or North Korea? Why, even in the case of Palestine, can't those who say they support the Palestinian cause tell you what type of Palestine they would like to see? After the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington why were you as likely to read that a sinister conspiracy of Jews controlled American or British foreign policy in a superior literary journal as in a neo-Nazi hate sheet? And why after the 7/7 attacks on London did leftish rather than right-wing newspapers run pieces excusing suicide bombers who were inspired by a psychopathic theology from the ultra-right?
In short, why is the world upside down? In the past conservatives made excuses for fascism because they mistakenly saw it as a continuation of their democratic rightwing ideas. Now, overwhelmingly and every where, liberals and leftists are far more likely than conservatives to excuse fascistic governments and movements, with the exception of their native far-right parties. As long as local racists are white, they have no difficulty in opposing them in a manner that would have been recognisable to the traditional left. But give them a foreign far-right movement that is anti-Western and they treat it as at best a distraction and at worst an ally.
A part of the answer is that it isn't at all clear what it means to be on the left at the moment. I doubt if anyone can tell you what a society significantly more left wing than ours would look like and how its economy and government would work (let alone whether a majority of their fellow citizens would want to live there). Socialism, which provided the definition of what it meant to be on the left from the 1880s to the 1980s, is gone. Disgraced by the communists' atrocities and floored by the success of market-based economies, it no longer exists as a coherent programme for government. Even the modest and humane social democratic systems of Europe are under strain and look dreadfully vulnerable.
It is not novel to say that socialism is dead. My argument is that its failure has brought a dark liberation to people who consider themselves to be on the liberal left. It has freed them to go along with any movement however far to the right it may be, as long as it is against the status quo in general and, specifically, America. I hate to repeat the overused quote that 'when a man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything', but there is no escaping it. Because it is very hard to imagine a radical leftwing alternative, or even mildly radical alternative, intellectuals in particular are ready to excuse the movements of the far right as long as they are anti-Western.
Far-Left of West acting as B-team of Far-Right of East! Nick Cohen brilliantly dissects the incosistencies of modern-day "progressives". Excerpts from the article:
Why is it that apologies for a militant Islam which stands for everything the liberal left is against come from the liberal left? Why will students hear a leftish postmodern theorist defend the exploitation of women in traditional cultures but not a crusty conservative don? After the American and British wars in Bosnia and Kosovo against Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansers, why were men and women of the left denying the existence of Serb concentration camps? As important, why did a European Union that daily announces its commitment to the liberal principles of human rights and international law do nothing as crimes against humanity took place just over its borders? Why is Palestine a cause for the liberal left, but not China, Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Congo or North Korea? Why, even in the case of Palestine, can't those who say they support the Palestinian cause tell you what type of Palestine they would like to see? After the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington why were you as likely to read that a sinister conspiracy of Jews controlled American or British foreign policy in a superior literary journal as in a neo-Nazi hate sheet? And why after the 7/7 attacks on London did leftish rather than right-wing newspapers run pieces excusing suicide bombers who were inspired by a psychopathic theology from the ultra-right?
In short, why is the world upside down? In the past conservatives made excuses for fascism because they mistakenly saw it as a continuation of their democratic rightwing ideas. Now, overwhelmingly and every where, liberals and leftists are far more likely than conservatives to excuse fascistic governments and movements, with the exception of their native far-right parties. As long as local racists are white, they have no difficulty in opposing them in a manner that would have been recognisable to the traditional left. But give them a foreign far-right movement that is anti-Western and they treat it as at best a distraction and at worst an ally.
A part of the answer is that it isn't at all clear what it means to be on the left at the moment. I doubt if anyone can tell you what a society significantly more left wing than ours would look like and how its economy and government would work (let alone whether a majority of their fellow citizens would want to live there). Socialism, which provided the definition of what it meant to be on the left from the 1880s to the 1980s, is gone. Disgraced by the communists' atrocities and floored by the success of market-based economies, it no longer exists as a coherent programme for government. Even the modest and humane social democratic systems of Europe are under strain and look dreadfully vulnerable.
It is not novel to say that socialism is dead. My argument is that its failure has brought a dark liberation to people who consider themselves to be on the liberal left. It has freed them to go along with any movement however far to the right it may be, as long as it is against the status quo in general and, specifically, America. I hate to repeat the overused quote that 'when a man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in nothing, he believes anything', but there is no escaping it. Because it is very hard to imagine a radical leftwing alternative, or even mildly radical alternative, intellectuals in particular are ready to excuse the movements of the far right as long as they are anti-Western.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The self-isolation of Venezuela and Iran
What lies behind the "anti-imperialist" brouhaha of two of the most "progressive" strongmen of the world. From today's editorial of Christian Science Monitor:
The self-isolation of Iran and Venezuela comes out of a faulty vision in economics and a heavy hand in reducing democracy down to autocracy. The more they try to use oil wealth to win other nations over to an anti-US axis, the more they put their weak policies on display. Some revolutions aren't very revolutionary.
What lies behind the "anti-imperialist" brouhaha of two of the most "progressive" strongmen of the world. From today's editorial of Christian Science Monitor:
The self-isolation of Iran and Venezuela comes out of a faulty vision in economics and a heavy hand in reducing democracy down to autocracy. The more they try to use oil wealth to win other nations over to an anti-US axis, the more they put their weak policies on display. Some revolutions aren't very revolutionary.
| Your Birthdate: January 17 |
 You tend to find yourself lucky - both in business and in life. And while being wealthy is nice, you enjoy sharing your abundance with others. You put your luck to good use: you are very ambitious and goal oriented. Often times, you get over excited and take on more than you can manage. Your strength: Your ability to make your own luck Your weakness: Thinking you can do it all Your power color: Bronze Your power symbol: Half Moon Your power month: August |
Monday, January 15, 2007
Where LoC means Lots of Coffee
Political wittiness at its best in Civil Junction.
... the fare it serves includes the elegiac Military Intervention. "It is a beefy main course. Some like it, some hate it but all take it," said Bhatti about CJ's "first generation" dish sold alongside the Murgh Malai Aloo (MMA), a culinary spoof on Pakistan's right-wing Opposition, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.
Inspired by Benazir Bhutto's PPP, Pakistan's Popular Pakorre is a "tea party" item and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League comparable with Pure Mutton League, an "establishment favourite and a tribute to leadership on plate."
The café's second generation menu has made the fare even richer. "Mutton boneless" is its War Against Terror and the Aloo Gosht mix a Civil-Military Translucent Gravy . On offer for those who like their meals soft is Spineless Opposition made of boneless chicken.
Political wittiness at its best in Civil Junction.
... the fare it serves includes the elegiac Military Intervention. "It is a beefy main course. Some like it, some hate it but all take it," said Bhatti about CJ's "first generation" dish sold alongside the Murgh Malai Aloo (MMA), a culinary spoof on Pakistan's right-wing Opposition, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.
Inspired by Benazir Bhutto's PPP, Pakistan's Popular Pakorre is a "tea party" item and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League comparable with Pure Mutton League, an "establishment favourite and a tribute to leadership on plate."
The café's second generation menu has made the fare even richer. "Mutton boneless" is its War Against Terror and the Aloo Gosht mix a Civil-Military Translucent Gravy . On offer for those who like their meals soft is Spineless Opposition made of boneless chicken.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
George Carlin's Views On Aging
Enjoyable read!!
Umar
===================================
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids?
If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five!
That's the key. You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back.
You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!
And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. . . YEAS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED, we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 . . . and your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70!
After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.
And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!
HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
Enjoyable read!!
Umar
===================================
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids?
If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five!
That's the key. You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back.
You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!
And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. . . YEAS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED, we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 . . . and your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60. You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70!
After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.
And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!
HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
China: Next Superpower?
China catching up to USA? Seems not so soon. Some inside stories about the power echelons of potential "next superpower".
China catching up to USA? Seems not so soon. Some inside stories about the power echelons of potential "next superpower".
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Afro-Pakistanis
I didn't know that people of African origin also exist inPakistan. And they are the ones who make offerings to "mystic" crocies at Mangopir.
I didn't know that people of African origin also exist inPakistan. And they are the ones who make offerings to "mystic" crocies at Mangopir.
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