Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year.

Here I am still waiting for the clock to strike 12 and the New Year to begin. All over the world people are happy and celebrating the New Year. Some have already celebrated the new year and are on the first day of 2013 and some like us are still waiting. I see all the celebrations and I wonder what is it that makes the New Year Happy? Why is the new year happy? What is happy about the new year? Nothing has changed...just the hour and the date on the calendar.
Poor people are still poor, wars are still on going, there is still inflation, global warming, food and fuel shortages and it is business as usual. If the new year was magical and if really and truly on Jan 1st things would all be better like someone waved a magic wand, then it will be a real Happy New Year.
It would be like a reset button. On every first of the year everything is fine and all is well and everyone is really happy and we the people are given one more chance. Our mistakes are forgiven, damage done by us humans is undone and we are given another chance to get things right...only then the new year will truly be a Happy New Year. A new beginning every year. If New Year is not magical and does not bring true happiness and peace in the world, then all this celebration and fake happiness doesn't make any sense. It is just another day on the calendar, only the year has changed telling you that there is one less year in your life to make things right... One less year of your stay in this world...what is happy about that?

Thursday, December 27, 2012

The tsunami that turned out to be a ripple in the pond

Pakistanis want change. They are tired of the status quo and the corruption that has permeated all levels of the society. Imran Khan's popularity shows that people want change. He is a new face and an honest guy who is enthusiastic about changing Pakistan. But somehow his immense popularity among the masses fails to translate into electoral victory. People translate their desire for change through their votes. Something weird happens when they get into the voting booth...they somehow press the "repeat" button in the voting booth instead of the "change" button! Is the voting booth some magical place where you enter and reality is altered or is it simply that we don't understand what change is?
I think we want change but we want others to change we want others to bring the change for us. We forget that change starts with ourselves; it can't be imposed upon you. We all dream, but don't want to take an actual step in the right direction to make that dream come true. We go in the voting booth and forget what issues the country is facing and who is best equipped to fix them instead we remember our tribal, ethnic, regional allegiances...we vote in self interest, not in the interest of the country.
 This doesn't bode well for Imran Khan or change. Constituency politics are alive and thriving, as seen by the recent by election results in Pakistan, where all the old faces were voted back into power in Punjab. The Bhuttos and the Sharif brothers will never be dethroned in their consituencies. Ameer Muqam no matter what party he joins will always win elections in his constituency, the Sherpaos, the Hotis and the Saifullahs will always win in their constituency.
 As long as regional, ethnic and tribal loyalties take priority over loyalty to the country there is no hope of change. Because of this, things don't look too good for Imran Khan as the face of change in Pakistan. People have high expectations from him but he can't perform miracles. Even he realized the limitations of our traditional electoral system and knew he couldn't win the elections without the help of old school career politicians who are always voted in by their people. He had to play ball. So he compromised his principals and added some old faces to his party, old horses with the new brand of PTI on them. He did this out of desperation to perform well in the elections. These sell out opportunistic politicians who go to the higest bidder jumped on Imran Khan's smooth sailing PTI ship. They went on (supposedly) the winning side...they thought they will be swept into power with Imran Khan's much hyped Tsunami. But then when someone came with a higher bid to win them back they jumped the PTI ship. They probably smelled trouble and just like rats, jumped the ship before the storm hit PTI. And now the much hyped Tsunami is starting to look more and more like a ripple in the pond. 
Revolutions don't come and change doesn't come just because someone says so. I think the problem with Imran Khan is that his most urgent and firm stand is the drone attacks to the exclusion of everything else. People of Pakistan have more urgent needs and a more severe situation staring them in the eyes: no jobs, no electricity, no water, high fuel and food prices and no sense of security or justice.
 The problem of home grown terrorism, the Balochistan issue, and he sees drones as the most important issue to highlight in his campaign? What about his main platform that he had started the party for....Justice? Why not follow up on that? Because justice is what this country needs badly. Just because the Chief Justice has been reinstated, justice hasn't been served. The whole judicial system needs an overhaul. People should be provided swift justice and no one should be above the law; that will solve a lot of Pakistan's problems. A little accountability goes a long way. As long as people feel above the law and as long as justice can be bought, no matter how many laws you put on the books and no matter how many revolutions you start nothing will change. We don't need any new kind of government or revolution and we wouldn’t need any interim government if there was accountability.
  The same old politicians, bureaucrats, judges and other leaders will have to do their job honestly if they know that they will be held accountable for their actions. People can keep voting in their family, tribesmen and bradri people but then those people will have to work honestly for fear of accountability. That is one way to bring about the change we are all dreaming of and hoping for. Provide justice for all and things will slowly start falling into place. And people will be forced to change.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

That is when people come out in the streets.



         
When do people come out in the streets? When people have nothing left to lose and they have even lost all hope, is the day the people come out on the streets. Then only anger remains and they want to correct all the injustices done to them. Sub ko uss din say darna chaheyae.(Everyone should be afraid of that day).
 I hope that the anger is channeled sensibly and does not lead to further chaos and breakdown of the society. The poor man has been squeezed enough in Pakistan; middle class has been squeezed into lower middle class and lower middle class into poverty. The rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer. It is such a paradox...the very rich people of a poor country. The people are rich and the country is poor? I wonder how so?  The rich and influential will have to watch their backs, the people are coming. The day they can't even buy bread, like it happened in Egypt, revolution will come.
But in our country the situation is very confusing, the people are confused. It is a total "khichri" of things. Too many actors and too many players are confusing the picture on the ground for the ordinary people. Manufactured revolutions being thrown at the people as if they are the real deal. The pseudo revolution manufactured by the establishment itself, using faith as the salable goods, against the political system (democracy) in which thousands have already lost lives. Misguided and misfiring for the reason that it is not a true movement of the people by the people themselves but because they are being used as pawns in the bigger games of thrones. The pawns think they are their own masters...forgetting that they are just pawns in chess masters hands.
There are plots and subplots in the unfolding drama in Pakistan.  The rich and influential are fleecing the country and see nothing wrong with it. This is the land of might is right and the day the poor rise and become the mighty and snatch their rights from the few Rich and powerful will be the day Pakistan truly becomes "Pak"istan. It is "na" Pakistan right now. Pakistan is the Precious Pretty bride over which all the suitors are fighting without asking the poor bride what she wants. The parents of the bride making the wrong decisions for her...let the bride speak please.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Freedom of Speech

In response to some people who want to enlighten Muslims about Freedom of Speech:
Freedom of speech and hate speech are two different things. People can't hide bigotry behind the guise of freedom of speech. Suffice to say that the 14 min video was not an artistic expression of some sort of freedom of speech. It was a cheap movie, a piece of garbage meant to incite the Muslim outrage and it did so. You push the buttons and when you get the desired results you point a finger at them and say, " See i told you so!"
Violent reaction on behalf of the Muslims was wrong but people in the West must know by now what to expect when they try and insult the Prophet of Islam. Why act surprised?
 Muslims have their own religious traditions and Christians have their own. All we ask for is a little respect. Give and take. We have one world to share and we all need to learn to co-exist and tolerate each other.

People in the western media start preaching to Muslims in a condescending way of how they can make fun of their own Prophets and even God and not care... There is a reason for this and that is as simple as the fact that these are two separate and different religions... Islam and Christianity. Different religions because we have different beliefs about different things and we have different religious traditions. Learn to accept us for who we are.  Don't put our faith on trial because of the reaction of a few violent ones.

Judging one society and culture in the light of your own doesn't make any sense in this day and age. For you your own and for us our own. I do disagree with the violent reaction in some Muslim countries by a small group of people. There were peaceful protests too but they didn't get much coverage because violence and outrage sell.  In Indonesia only 700 people went out to protest while sometime ago tens of thousands turned out to see Lady Gaga!  But what got coverage was the 700 protesting. In Libya thousands went to protest against the radical militant groups that were responsible for the death of the US ambassador. They kicked the militants out of their neighborhood! Don't just focus on the bad there is plenty good out there too.
We need to learn to accept others right to free speech and react to any disrespect or provocation in an intelligent and peaceful manner and they need to learn to stop provoking in the guise of freedom of speech just to make a point about Free speech. 

Friday, September 21, 2012

I Protest!

I protest the anti Muslim Movie that was meant to provoke Muslims. I protest!
 I also protest the way we the Muslims protested in response to this movie. I protest!

The provocateur provoked and we responded. We responded in a fashion that they wanted us to respond in...violently and senselessly destroying our own property and killing our own people to express our rage and by doing so we fell into their trap. They want to portray us and our faith as violent and by our reaction we reaffirmed that.

The movie maker has succeeded in defaming our religion...not with his movie but by the Muslims reaction to the movie all over the world. Mission accomplished!

Muslims violent reaction to the provocation has put Muslims on the defensive again in the World. Here we are on the airwaves explaining to the world that our faith is not violent and synonymous with terrorism but a religion of Peace. But actions speak louder than words...

The violent vocal minority has become the identity of Islam. They are loud armed and organized. The silent majority has to start making noise and get loud so as to drown the voices of the violent minority.

Here are a few things that i think were fueling these protest...
1- People are angry about a lot of things and this movie gave them an excuse to take out their anger and frustrations... burning and destroying their own country's property and killing their own people to vent their anger over a lot of other things.

2- There is a huge Outrage Industry in the Muslim world. And the leaders of these Muslim countries know how to manipulate it. It's a cynical manipulation of the people. Divert attention from what is wrong at home and in their own countries to outwards. America is an easy bogeyman. Let them chant down with America, they take their rage and frustrations of all that is bothering them on America and the movie, so they don't look inwards and ask questions about what is actually wrong in the Muslim world. Keep the people distracted so they don't see what is actually wrong with their countries and ask for answers there.

3- Also in the wake of Arab spring different groups are vying for power and might be using this outrage to garner support for their cause or their group. Islamism was waning in the Islamic world but this will help reinvigorate that movement too.
Pakistani Govt announced a holiday so people could protest...they did it just to gain cheap popularity with the masses and divert attention from the leadership that is highly unpopular these days.


4- It wasn't just people protesting the anti Muslim movie...there were criminals in the guise of protesters too who used this as an excuse to loot and plunder as well. Attacking banks and businesses, killing anyone who got in the way of looting and then running away with the stolen goods. How Islamic is that?


The hypocrisy is that we demand that people of other faith respect our faith yet we don't give their faiths the same respect. The minorities don't feel safe in our country. We burned down their Church because we want them to respect our faith...we don't respect their houses of worship but we want them to pass legislation to defend our faith?

When will we think with our heads and not our hearts? When will we learn that destroying your own property to protest something that happened abroad is not the way to go. It doesn't even make sense. Burn down your own house because the people in the other house made you angry?

Innocent Pakistanis were killed, Pakistani property was destroyed, some Pakistani has lost their source of income, some Pakistani family is grieving the loss of a loved one...how is that avenging disrespect to our Holy  Prophet (PBUH). Would our Prophet (PBUH) be pleased with his Ummah's actions?
I ask these protesters how much they follow Prophet (PBUH) in their day to day lives? If they truly followed Him they wouldn't be acting in this manner.

The guy who made this anti Muslim movie and the people who were part of violent protests collaborated to make this a Calamity.

I believe in Protest, Protest but Protest Intelligently.
Peace!








Thursday, March 8, 2012

Is Google god?

Is Google god?
It sure feels like it at times....Google knows all about you. Google is very close to you...it knows your likes, your dislikes, your hopes, your dreams, your life, your plans, what you like to eat, where you live, what you like to shop....your taste in music, your wants and needs. It knows you so well that it will suggest you songs to your taste, stores that you like to shop at... even what people to friend. They even put up ads to you that are specifically aimed at you. I get ads about Desi clothes, I get ads about Muslims finding Muslims on line, I get ads from Political Parties in an election year and I get ads to help support causes that I have supported in the past. Google knows me!
God knows me!
Both Google and god start with the letter "G".
If Google is not god, then it sure is hand of God on earth or working for God...gathering all the info about us, our activities and probably takes the report to God every night, instead of the usual Farishtas/ Angels.
Be good people. Google &&^##@%$%% sorry i meant God is watching you and knows everything about you... Fix your ways before it is too late.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Imran Khan... a Post Processed, Photo shopped, Manufactured Hero.

I am writing this with apologies to my freinds who are staunch Imran Khan supporters and there are quite a few of them, as his rising popularity shows. But before you all blow a fuse and come after me with a knife, please read what i have to say...it is for your own good and i hope somehow the message gets to Imran Khan as well, as it is for his own good too.

Some over enthusiusiatic supporters have been recently replacing Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's face in Photographs with Imran Khan's face. One or two such pics might have been considered  good humoured fun, but now it is reaching to the point of ridiculousness! 
How ungrateful a nation can we be...that we are all OK with replacing our Founding Father's face with a newbee politician who has yet to prove himself as a great leader...who hasn't even been elected to office yet and who has yet to show his achievements. How can we be fine with that as a nation?
I am a great fan of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and i personally find it offensive. And i feel by doing so we are insulting our founding father. How can we as a nation do that? Have we stooped to such a low now that we have forgotten our real heroes ...without whose efforts, there wouldn't even be a Pakistan, a place we could call a home for the Muslims of the Sub-Continent?
Apart form that, my dear Imran Khan supporters, it gives the impression of propaganda.You are trying too hard.
It is like you guys are trying to send Subliminal messages to the public, but it isn't even subliminal, it is so overt. It is childish!
It gives the impression that you are trying to manufacture an image for Imran Khan. It gives credence to the idea that he is a manufactured Hero/candidate. It perpetuates the myth.
I admit that he is very popular among the masses but popularity alone doesn't translate into success or heroism. Yes he has done great things with his hospital and he won the Cricket World Cup and he is a very honest guy but that automatically doesn't translate into a hero of such a calibre that he could replace Jinnah. If that is the criteria then we should be putting Abdus Saattar Edhi's photo in place of Jinnah's photo as well...he has done a lot of good for the people of Pakistan too and much more than Imran Khan...if i may say so.
He has to deliver and actually do something tangible for the country before we declare him a hero and start comparing him to JInnah. 
This is the first time in history that i have seen someone become a hero before he has actually done anything. All this leads to the speculation that someone and some people are trying too hard to make him into a hero.
Let him be...let him get elected first....and prove himself... let him implement some policies that will change the course of the country and once that happens he will be my Hero as well... But like i said...Populism doesn't equal Heroism.
The perfect example is Barack Obama...he was going to change the world...people loved him and he was very popular but his popularity didn't translate into action.
And even if Imran Khan can change the course of our nation, he still can't replace Jinnah... no one can take the place of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Mohammad Ali Jinnah is Mohammad Ali Jinnah! 
I know our nation is in need of a real Hero and we the people want a Hero real bad...so bad that we are willing to manufacture one in our heads just to feel good. For a people needing real change this doesn't bode well