In the line of Fire

Wikipedia now has a detailed review on Pervez Musharraf 's book "In the line of Fire", highlighting common criticism and a brief synopsis of the book.

What surprises me the most, is that I've often come across fellow Pakistanis who can argue for a half an hour during coffee table discussions, and then sheepishly admit that they haven't read the book yet and their facts are nothing but hearsay.

For those of my braderi, read the synopsis please

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Line_of_Fire:_A_Memoir


Here are my initial thoughts after reading the book
- "Hooray , Musharraf is here..and as long as he doesn't get assassinated..Pakistan is on the road to prosperity"

After some thought, here what I think the writer is trying to tell us
- "Mushy is superman, and don't worry..what looks like bad right now is going to be a-ok in the future"


Its definitely something that everyone should read, as it might go against a lot of what you learned about Pakistan's history at school.


Reviews:
K.O has a review here
and behanjee has another one here

One More

I've been too busy reading other people's blogs to write anything on my own. So here's a quick power post with some thoughts and brief comments.

Questions that come to mind:

Why wont they have background music in public bathrooms?
- It would you from the background music that you currently get to hear, and people wouldnt sit in the stall and wait for everyone to leave before getting down to business

What if cricket / sport commentators could use explicit language while commentating?
- Balaji to Afridi..Holy f**k that went miles, balajis getting b*tch-slapped today!

Why do sequels always suck?
- Except Godfather II

Is Ali G /Sacha Baron Cohen/ Borat really brilliant?
- I dunno, I'm inclined to think that he's not. He's got a novel approach to highlighting diversity, but i still feel that its quite distant from 'brilliance'

Are we just optimistic, or is Pakistan still in a never ending cycle of military leaders and idiots?
- I was depressed when I read the economist special report on Pakistan.
- I was all upbeat when I read Mushy's book
- I was depressed when I read Owen Bennet Jones's version of the same picture, where he says..in short..Mushy is just another Ayub Khan...and that we'll all agree with him in 10-15 years
- In short..theres good, bad and ugly happening in Pakistan at the moment. Lets hope it turns out for the best.

Also,

- Pakistaniat
Is a really great blog that has tons of stuff on Pakistan and comments from many people.


I know that there are many concerns/issues with all my above postings, but it never hurts to think.


There are many more questions, but I think its best to save them for the next post..see ya in another two weeks.

Sholay Remake

I saw the remake of 'Don' last week, and was quite impressed. Atleast the 'dishum dishum' makes up for the other let-downs in the film, and obviously that Roma (Priyanka Chopra) is super hot. Hence the idea

Could there be a remake of Sholay??

I start out by thinking of all the roles, and who could possibly play them.

1) Amitabh (Jai)
2) Dharmendra (Veeru)
3) Hema Malini (Basanti)
4) Amjad Khan (Gabbar)
5)

Wait, somone already thought of this one too, damnit!!

As I was writing this post, it dawned on me that someone else (like a real movie producer) may already be working on this idea. And guess what, there is a remake of Sholay in the works.

Ram Gopal Verma is making the movie , and here is the anticipated cast.

1)Jai - Mohit Ahlawat
2)Veeru - Abhishek Bachan
3)Basanti -
4)Gabbar Singh - Amitabh Bachan
6)Thakur - Jeetendra

Before you get all excited

There's a legal battle going on between the Sippy family ( who hold the rights to Sholay) and Ram Gopal Verma, and the results are still not out yet.

Most likely the film will be an adaptation of Sholay, much like the recent film Omkara. Let see what happens.

Top Cop!!

Clifton Town Police Station has a website, check it out here

The best is the "Cop of the Month Feature"

Go Karachi..... Forget the NYPD, we now have CTPD (Clifton Town Police Department)

Thanks Abbas

Deepak Jain

"You can only control your efforts, not the outcome of your journey. Put your energy toward your efforts and you will reach your destination faster."

Deepak Jain is the Dean of Northwestern's Kellog School of Management.

I'm on youtube

Haider was randomly browsing youtube when he discovered a video taken at a family event.

The video was taken at my nephew's first birthday, we had organized a Qawwali for the little one.

I'm not sure who posted it on youtube, but its really weird to see your own videos pop up in such places.



Random-ness at its best.

Its my Country too

Saturday 21st October at 1410 GMT
Repeated: Saturday 21st at 2110, Sunday 22nd at 22nd 0410 and 0910 GMT

5 years on since 9/11 - the US is a changed country... especially for Muslims.

As part of the USA Direct season, It’s My Country Too follows Salman Ahmed, founding member of successful rock band Junoon, as he explores what it means to be an American Muslim.

Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the US. Yet one in four Americans regard Muslims living among them with suspicion. And what if you are an American and a Muslim?

This World follows Salman Ahmed, founding member of successful rock band Junoon, as he explores what it means to be an American Muslim these days. Salman says: "I never thought about my religion in a sense that I have to explain it to the rest of the world." However, as non-Muslims search for answers, this is exactly what they seem to be asking of their fellow citizens.

Shoaib : Hotboxed

So Shoaib Akhtar does it again. I'm sure many of us remember the charas filled video of him singing 'Aate Jaate Khoobsurat' with doobie in his hand.

This time, He's been sent home for 'substance abuse' . Based on following Shoaib's performances for the past 10 years, I can safely say that Shoaib, Asif and Rana are incapable of procuring and administering performance enhancing drugs on their own, without any medical officer finding out / helping them.

Shoaib had a private Doctor on his payroll, makes you wonder why he would need to hire a doctor when the Pakistan Cricket Board pays for all medical fees.

Here's my take on the situation : Everyone's shady, including the PCB and Shoaibee, so really nothing coming out of this one. Maybe a 1-2 year ban at the most. But a reputation that further tarnished.

Like Warne, all these guys should have blamed it on their mothers too. He definitely won that year for 'Smartest Grownup with toddler hairstyle'

Shoaib and Asif have already made it on the Wikipedia list for controversial Nandrolone abuse cases.


More later sometime.

Iraq : 655,000 + dead since March 2003

An estimated 655 000 more Iraqis have died as a consequence of the March 2003 military invasion of Iraq than would have been expected in a non-conflict situation, according to an Article published by The Lancet

Bush says its not true, and says he's deeply saddened. Doesn't mention any numbers though.

I bet he cant wait for his term to end, cuz that's the only way he's getting out of all the mess that he's created.

Question is.. If no one supports the war, what are they still doing there?

Third Base coach

Did you know that there is a coach for the third base in baseball.

I'm assuming there's one for first,second and the home base also..there must be some coaches for ensuring that people can catch properly with a glove that twice the size of their hand.

If anyone has ever been to a baseball game, you'll quickly realize how its a completely overstaffed game for people with really short attention spans. I went some time ago, and was completely bored out of my mind. Super slow, golf is more exciting to watch.

I'd rather go to the circus and see some real clowns.

Internet = Forever

They say that if you post something on the internet, it will stay there forever.

I say that if you post something on the internet, it will stay there forever..unless google decides to delete it.


“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must out run the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It does not matter whether you are a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up you had better be running.”

Thomas L. Friedman in his book 'The World is Flat'

Recipe : Yakhni

Off to another random post. 'Yakhni for dummies'

This time we'll talk about how to make Yakhni. I made some today for a buddy thats not doing too well. The flu's got him down.

Ingredients:
1) Chicken (preferably with the bones, and a few pieces only)
2) Garlic/ginger ( The paste will do just as well)
3) Black pepper ( a little more than just a little bit)
4) Salt ( just a little bit)
5) Water

Instructions:
Throw everything in a pot of water, and just boil it for the next hour. It's going to turn out great.

I also watched some tv,and smoked a few cigarettes..dont know if that had anything to with it but I thought I'd mention just in case.


Simple, isnt it?

Ali 3.0

I'm back after the wedding, it was absolutely amazing. I have 3 DVD's and over 2,000 pictures from the events.

Everyone has been asking if I feel different now that I'm a married man, but either I'm unconsciously underplaying it or it doesn't feel like a life altering change just yet.

Lots of stuff happened around the world when I was away, so lets let that be a part of history.

In randomness, I've outsourced my cooking to a reliable Indian restaurant in Toronto, lets see how that works out.

Stay tuned, more to come.

Economist : Special Report on Pakistan

The economist published a 10-page special report on Pakistan recently.

I've held the economist in a league of less biased publications, but was rather depressed to see the picture painted by the authors.

Its mostly true from their perspective, but Jawwad Farid has a nice commentary here thats looks at things from a Pakistani's point of view.

DesibacktoDesh a good blog to bookmark, url is here

http://www.alchemya.com/blog/index.html


In other news, I'm still getting married and will be in Karachi soon Insh'Allah.

So here's what happened

So, Getting married in three weeks.

Life's pretty good. Its not often that you meet the girl of your dreams, and she likes you.

So you go out with her for a bit, and then decide to move (by yourself) to Canada.

You then think you dont want to deal with the long-distance sh*t, and tell her you want to go find yourself. Surpisingly, she agrees.

Two years later, you go back to Karachi. You've been in love with her since day one, but practicality got the better of you.

You ask her to marry you,and she agrees. She's as relaxed as she was when you had told her you needed to "find yourself"

Now the tough part,basically you ask your parents and her parents, and they love the idea.

Preparations are currently underway for the mother of all weddings, and I cant believe how fortunate I am.

Thank God for everything.

MIA

lots of stuff has been happening lately, and its all super personal..those of you know..thanks, and those of you that dont....i guess you'll have to wait.

I think I need another week before I start blogging again.

Cya,

Ali

Mohammad Ali Jinnah

"Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three."

-Stanley Wolpert in his book "Jinnah of Pakistan"


A must read for anyone interested in Pakistan and its origins. It's amazing to see how little we know about such a great man.

Life -at a distance.

If we look at our lives at the highest level, what is our purpose?

I know its difficult, but if for a second I seperate myself from work, family, friends and all the little things that surround me, what am I left with.

Never crossed my mind before, but now it has.. so why are we really here, sure as hell its not to have the best house/car/partner or to gain self-satisfaction, be it out of love, money or whatever drives us to do what we do everyday.

As a Muslim, I know that this life is temporary and we are all being 'tested' to submit to the will of God and to fullfill the rights of our fellow beings.

That makes sense, however it often gets lost in the scramble of our lives. Therefore most of what we do on a daily basis has little or nothing to do with our 'Purpose in life'.

Maybe I'm going off on a totally new tangent, but at first it doesnt really make sense to me, you have a purpose, yet you dont really do much about it...hmmm

----------------------------------------------------------------

Side note, sometimes things like what I mentioned above is used to manipulate the minds of the illiterate to incite violence and promote 'extremism', that is just wrong. The whole 'extremist philosophy' is more political than anything else in my opinion. God never wants you to go out and hurt someone else, regardless of what they may do to you.

Karachi Beach!!!

In a recent article entitled "The battering of our beaches", Cowasjee documented the sad state of our beaches. Without hard and fast intervention, seems like the situation is going from bad to worse!
Here are some points from his article, I had no idea about:

"The city’s population is increasing by 500,000 a year. We need all our beaches to cater for increased recreational needs...Public access to the beach is integral to democracy and equality. Karachi is almost destitute of parks and playgrounds and open spaces. It has fewer acres of such spaces per 1,000 residents as compared to any major city in the developed world.

The city government has built two parallel parapets which hide the sea from public view. Parapets are normally hip-high as were the parapets built by Sir Jehangir Kothari in 1912, still standing for all to emulate. What our city government, obsessed with size, has built is head-high. Why? Could it be to enrich the brick makers and layers?

... And further folly from our MQM Minister for Ports & Shipping, Babar Ghauri. Whilst once in Jeddah on one of the many ‘official’ visits our ministers indulge in, he spotted a water jet spouting high into the air in front of the royal palaces. In search of glory, he ordered the Karachi Port Trust to have it replicated in Karachi’s sea, without bothering about how much it would cost to purchase, instal and operate.

Now to the real danger..."


I didn't want to post another HUGE article so I'm ending the cutting and pasting here. Expectedly, there is much more in his article that is worth reading. He touches on the bigger problems of the issue further on in his article, so if anyone is interested, here is where the article is!!!

FYI...

ISRAEL PLANS TO BUILD 'MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE' ON MUSLIM GRAVES

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
09 February 2006

Skeletons are being removed from the site of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem to make way for a $150m (£86m) "museum of tolerance" being built for the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Palestinians have launched a legal battle to stop the work at what was the city's main Muslim cemetery. The work is to prepare for the construction of a museum which seeks the promotion of "unity and respect among Jews and between people of all faiths".

Israeli archaeologists and developers have continued excavating the remains of people buried at the site - which was a cemetery for at least 1,000 years - despite a temporary ban on work granted by the Islamic Court, a division of Israel's justice system. Police have been taking legal advice on whether the order is legally binding. The Israeli High Court is to hear a separate case brought by the Al Aqsa Association of the Islamic Movement in Israel next week.


[This is from The Independent. The rest of the article can be found here]

FINALLY, some sense...

The following is an article about the DANISH CARTOONS. It's by Robert Fisk (a very intelligent and well-informed person). More of his writings on the Middle East can be found here.

(I know the article might be a bit 'long' for some but I totally thinks it's worth a read!)

---------------------------------------
Danish cartoons: provocative and perverse

By Robert Fisk

This is not an issue of secularism versus Islam. For Muslims, the Prophet is the man who received divine words directly from God. We see our saints and prophets as faintly historical figures, at odds with our high-tech human rights and freedoms, almost caricatures of themselves. The fact is that Muslims live their religion. We do not. They have kept their faith through innumerable historical vicissitudes. We have lost our faith.

SO now it’s cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Ambassadors are withdrawn from Denmark, the Saudis and the Syrians complain, Gulf nations clear their shelves of Danish produce, Gaza gunmen threaten the European Union and foreign journalists.

In Denmark, Fleming Rose, the ‘culture’ editor of the pip-squeak newspaper which published these silly cartoons — last September, for heaven’s sake — announces that we are witnessing a “clash of civilizations” between secular western democracies and Islamic societies. This does prove, I suppose, that Danish journalists follow in the true tradition of Hans Christian Anderson. Oh lordy, lordy. What we’re witnessing is the childishness of civilizations.

So let’s start off with the Department of Home Truths. This is not an issue of secularism versus Islam. For Muslims, the Prophet is the man who received divine words directly from God. We see our saints and prophets as faintly historical figures, at odds with our high-tech human rights and freedoms, almost caricatures of themselves. The fact is that Muslims live their religion. We do not. They have kept their faith through innumerable historical vicissitudes. We have lost our faith ever since Matthew Arnold wrote about the sea’s “long withdrawing roar.” That’s why we talk about ‘the West versus Islam’ rather than ‘Christians versus Islam’ — because there aren’t an awful lot of Christians left in Europe. There is no way we can get round this by setting up all the other world religions and asking why we are not allowed to make fun of the Prophet.

Besides, we can exercise our own hypocrisy over religious feelings. I happen to remember how more than a decade ago, a film called the Last Temptation of Christ showed Jesus making love to a woman. In Paris, someone set fire to the cinema showing the movie, killing a young Frenchman. I also happen to remember a major US university which invited me to give a lecture three years ago. I did. It was entitled. “September 11, 2001: ask who did it but, for God’s sake, don’t ask why.” When I arrived, I found that the university authorities had deleted the phrase “for God’s sake” because “we didn’t want to offend certain sensibilities. Ah-ha, so we have ‘sensibilities’ too.

In other words, while we claim that Muslims must be good secularists when it comes to free speech — or cheap cartoons — we can worry about adherents to our own precious religion just as much. I also enjoyed the pompous claims of European statesmen that they cannot control free speech or newspapers. This is also nonsense. Had that cartoon of the Prophet shown instead a chief rabbi with a bomb-shaped hat, we would have had “anti-semitism” screamed into our ears — and rightly so — just as we often hear the Israelis complain about anti-semitic cartoons in Egyptian newspapers.

Furthermore, in some European nations — France is one, Germany and Austria are among the others — it is forbidden by law to deny acts of genocide. In France, for example, it is illegal to say that the Jewish Holocaust or the Armenian Holocaust did not happen (wait for Turkey’s problems over the latter if it ever gets into the EU). So it is in fact impermissible to make certain statements in European nations. I’m still uncertain whether these laws attain their objectives: however much you may prescribe Holocaust denial, anti-semites will always try to find a way round.

The point, however, is that we can hardly exercise our political restraints or laws to prevent anti-semitic cartoons or Holocaust deniers and then start screaming about secularism when we find that Muslims object to our provocative and insulting image of the Prophet.

For many Muslims, the ‘Islamic’ reaction to this whole squalid affair is an embarrassment. There is perfectly good reason to believe that Muslims would like to see some element of reform introduced to their religion. If this cartoon had advanced the cause of those who want to debate this issue — if it allowed for a serious dialogue and no one would have minded. But it was clearly intended to be provocative. It was so outrageous that it only caused reaction. And this is not a great time to heat up the old Samuel Huntington garbage about a ‘clash of civilizations’. Iran now has a clerical government again. So, to all intents and purposes, does Iraq (which was not supposed to end up with a democratically elected clerical administration, but that’s what happens when you topple dictators).

In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 20 per cent of the seats in the recent parliamentary elections. Now we have Hamas in charge of ‘Palestine’. There’s a message here, isn’t there? That America’s policies and ‘regime change’ and ‘democracy’ in the Middle East — are not achieving their ends. These millions of voters were preferring Islam to the corrupt regimes which we imposed on them. For the Danish cartoon to be dumped on top of this fire is dangerous indeed.

In any event, it’s not about whether the Prophet should be pictured. The Quran does not forbid images of the Prophet even though millions of Muslims do. The problem is that these cartoons portrayed Islam as a violent religion. It is not. Or do we want to make it so? —(c) The Independent

Dimaagh Kharab

Our society is full of double standards, whereby everyone has a set of rules for themselves and another one to judge everyone else with. If you think about it, its a norm, and you generally just tend to accept it with time.

Why it is so...well here's AP's response ( please remember that i'm not the smarter one in this duo)

ALi says:
not really...the question is..why do we have them, and why are they socially accepted without question
AP says:
why we have them, i think, is a psycho-social question
AP says:
why they're socially accepted without question is simply b/c thats how everyone is..its the norm; it perpetuates itself.....u pass on the standard to ure kids and they pass it on and so on....



btw, if youre now thinking where this post is supposed to make sense, it really isnt..its just random rambling..


I need to get back to blogging, because i've put it off so much that its become a challenging task for me, procrastination always gets the better of me.


tomorrow,

[an]

Dog Food for Famine Victims!

Below are excerpts from the an article entitled "New Zealand Food Help for Kenyans is for the Dogs" By Alexander Schwabe. The rest of the article can be found here.

-------------
"Kenya is suffering from an ongoing drought. What the young woman saw in Kenya disturbed her deeply. Upon her return to her hometown of North Canterbury in New Zealand, she told friends and family about the hunger in the eastern African country. Her stories were so heart-wrenching that a friend of her mother's, the dog-food manufacturer Christine Drummond, came up with the idea of sending 42 tons of powdered dog food to Kenya's famine victims.

Not surprisingly, the Kenyan government refused this offer. John Munyes, the Kenyan minister responsible for aid programs, said it was an insult to think his nation would accept animal food. Drummond had sought to avoid exactly this response. In order to demonstrate the sincerity of her offer, she promised that the dog food was very nutritious and actually quite tasty. She and her children, she said, mix it in with their breakfast cereal every morning.

In preparing to deliver the dog food, Drummond even developed a recipe that was tailored to the conditions in Kenya. "The first plan was to send dog biscuits, and change the vitamins," she told a Christchurch paper called The Press. "Then, when I heard there were so many little children, I couldn't send them a bicky."Instead, she developed a powder that could be mixed with water and turned into a meal. It was based primarily on corn, which is a major staple of the Kenyan diet, but also contained freeze-dried meat: beef, sheep, pork, chicken and venison. Also involved were clams, seaweed, garlic, eggs, cereals and flax.

The Kenyans were far from impressed. "The offer was very naïve and culturally insulting, given the meaning of dogs in our culture," said Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua. Drummond, he admitted, may have been trying to help, but her offer was "unacceptable."No one denies that Kenya's situation is desperate. An ongoing drought and failed harvests have led to 3.5 million people suffering from hunger. President Mwai Kibaki has announced a state of emergency. But the dog-food offer has generated shock and outrage. Zipporah Kittony, head of the Kenyan women's group Maendeleo ya Wanawake, called the offer the highest form of abuse which Kenyan women and children could be subjected to. Especially in times of drought, she said, children must be handled with dignity."

crazy? smart? smart? crazy? - what's going on?

Ok, really - so is he the crazy one with a death wish or can he really emerge as the visionary leader of the muslim world?

I place my bet on the former! The picture is from "The World Without Zionism" Conference held in October 2005, where he said that Israel should be "wiped off the map" and that it should be moved to Europe or Alaska!!!!

Yeah, right!!!

BUT - onto the NUCLEAR issue....

Side A: Fair enough - after all, Iran has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which gives countries the right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful use.

Side B: Also, a valid point - after all, the 'mullahs' dont have a very good track record!!

So who's right?

Social Sin???

This one is for all those who have sold their 'souls to a corporation'...(you know who you are, right, AN????)

Allow me to share a simple paragraph from a letter on world hunger called 'Sharing Daily Bread' written by some canadian bishops back in the 70's.

"No amount of generosity extended to the underdeveloped nations will significantly alleviate world hunger until the market system itself is changed. The present market is designed primarily to make profits, not to feed people. The supply & distribution of food is determined mainly by effective demand, not by human need. Effective demand is usually defined in terms of abilty to pay. Food supplies are often controlled in such a way as to drive up prices in the market. A contradictiin is built into the system producing and distributing food. Human society does not plan to grow adequate food supplies for its population and then distriubte them to people according to their objective requirements. Instead, the institution which regulates the production and delivery of food is defined by a principle, the profit priniciple, which has no direct relation to peole's needs".

The fact that this is the way the system works today illustrates collective/social sin. The 'sin' part i might delve into another time. Suffice is to say that we need a lot more than food aid to help the world - we need to buy back some of those 'sold souls'!!!!!

41 years later...

I found this here:

Science died in 1965: The article “Death of Science” by Ms Zubeida Mustafa needs elaboration. Actually science died in Pakistan on September 5, 1965. It so happened that the government of Ayub Khan set up various commissions on education, science etc.

The science commision consisted of eminent scientists Professor Abdus Salam, Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui and Dr I.H. Usmani.It submitted its report to President Ayub on Sept. 5, 1965 at a meeting held in Swat. It recommended setting up of laboratories and training of science teachers from the primary to university level and recommended increased funding.

The next day, war broke out between India and Pakistan and all the funding recommended was diverted to the war effort. The biggest victim of the 1965 war was science in Pakistan.

By DR S.M. ISMAIL, Karachi

=> What a cool opinion!!!