The news from Raiwand- A pleasant surprise

A week ago we were having lunch with a Pakistani friend, the conversation eventually- as always- landed up on  the situation back home. The common consensus was that although we knew attitudes towards the T were changing, but it was only when the masses and leaders stood up and were ready to do something about it would we hope to see a change. Today’s article in the dawn.

The gathering at Raiwand is the most famous and the largest religious gathering of the faithful in Pakistan. Men from all over Pakistan travel to Raiwand for this 3-4 day event. Religious leaders and people from all walks of life including those from the northwest have openly come out and condemned the Taliban calling their mission an “unholy” crusade which will at best land the T in hell for killing innocent men, women and children. The gathering is being held under tight security. It is quite ironic that the T who call themselves as “protectors of the faith” are a threat to a group that has been known to preach and spread the faith.

A side note to the western media, start reading the local news coming out of PK before constantly labeling us.

Hello World

I am back once again after another long break. This time hopefully for good. We’ve settled in, lil guy is getting bigger.  Have started to follow the news once again and will now be back with more regular blog posts.

There is a severe shortage of H1n1 vaccines here to the extent that even the people in the ‘high priority” are unable to get them. Ager US ka yeh haal hai to wonder whats happening in the rest of the world.

 

H1N1

Hubby just started school, three days later he’s down with H1N1. To all you smart ones out there, Please stay at home if you are coughing, down with a sore throat, sneezing etc. Esp if you are in the US. there is only one strain out there and its the H1N1 virus. You may have a mild flu, that doesn’t mean that the people you infect will also have a mild case.

Anyone have any interesting ideas as to how to protect the little one.

Buner and the Talibans

According to the Dawn today, the Taliban decided to pull out of Buner. Please don’t take this as a sign of victory, or that the Taliban are now going to live according to the terms of the accord and just stay and rule in Swat.

I remember reading an article 8 to 10 years ago, again in the dawn. the person, a foreign journalist, had been following the “jihadis” as they were then called. She wrote about how there was a generation of young men who had seen nothing but war, who had been trained in nothing but war. They had fought the Russians initially, then they had fought amongst themselves, they later fought in Bosnia and occasionally entered Kashmir and fought there.  These men would now be in their 30s and 40s. they stay have a couple of decade of fight left inside them. They also have a new generation of men that they have trained. They fight in the name of religion, but know only that which has been taught to them, rather then gain their own understanding of religion.

The taliban is a similar breed, if not the same breed of men. Please don’t underestimate them. If they have retreated back to Swat, its only because under the current circumstances it made more sense to retreat. they will look for an opportunity and strike once again when the guard is down. Or maybe they will instill their writ and Swat and practice it till it becomes acceptable to people thinking it is the writ of the land and then they will expand.

We have to prevent this from happening. Were we not taught, that is you see an injustice happen, fight against it. If you cannot fight against it at least speak up against it. I think  most of us can at the minimum speak up against it.

CNN, Farid Zakarya and Karzai

There seems to be no point in watching CNN on a Sunday afternoon because all I see is Farid Zakariya on his favourite topic. Labeling Pakistan as a failed state, a rouge state and any other similar word he can get his hands on. First it was via newsweek and now its through CNN . I first thought I was paranoid but after seeing the same trends week after week I know I am not.

On this particular occasion, he had invited Mr Karzai, Afghanistan’s President to provide his comments. His introduction stated that this is the man who controls Afghanistan, why is it then that all unbiased scoops coming out of Afghanistan state that the US is doing miserably in the Afghan war and to be honest all Karzai controls is Kabul and the areas surrounding it.

According to Mr Karzai, the Taliban problem in Afghanistan is because of Pakistan. umm hello.. The Taliban problem in Pakistan is because of Afghanistan, as are the drug, guns, extremism and refugee problems!!

MQM, the talibans and Buner

Who thought there would be a day when I would support the MQM. Growing up in a family with strong supporters, I had the tendency to move the other way. Today after reading the Dawnregarding parliaments shameful reaction to the Nizam’s Adl and Sufi Mohhamad (SM) and his followers, I have to respect the party and thank them for their stance.  At Karachi Univeristy, while the APMSO was involved in all the activities that made us dislike student political parties with their phaddas and fights, they were also the party the girls went too when they  had “guy” trouble in the form of stalking and teasing.

Let’s just say that the girls were not bothered again.

Although I am a 90% optimist and have always believed that Pakistan can come out of everything, and that things will pass, I also don’t believe in just sitting back and not doing anything. I think the people of Pakistan need to be more vocal about their desires. Why is it that a bunch of extremely vocal “Talibans” can aspire to control the country and the silent majority just stay silent? If all its going to take is a “dozen” individual to invite SM into Buner, I would say to everyone please don’t keep sleeping. We saw the way the movement to restore the Chief justice succeeded, we need a similar one to ensure that Pakistan remains the relatively secular, moderately religious state that it is and that these people go back to where they belong- ie Afghanistan.

After all wasn’t it in my Islamiat class that I learnt that the Prophet (PBUH) said we should adopt the middle path ie moderation.

What’s right in Pk?- For one a new free state of the art surgery center in PK

Having gotten tired of watching Farid Zakariya on CNN using every opportunity to have Pakistan labelled as a failed state, I decided to follow the line adopted by some of the Pakistani bloggers ( see desibacktodesh) to also highlight some of the things actually going right in the country. We all know what the problems are, every newspaper and newspaper channel inside and outside of Pakistan uses every single opportunity to drive home that point, very few however use it to help people become a little less stressed by highlighting what is going right in the country.

I came across this article from Dawn about the new state of the art free surgery center that has opened up in Civil Hospital. The center looks similar to outpatient set ups in the US where people have outpatient surgeries in an attempt to minimize healthcare costs. The article provides a detailed view with phootgraphs. What I found impressive is that the planners, doctors and philanthropists have thought this idea through. Not only is the surgery free for the poor who cannot afford it, there is also water and free food available  in the waiting area for relatives and friends.

Having lived in the US for the past few years, I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me where I can take someone without insurance for free health care including tests and surgeries. Hopefully that will change with the new Obama administration.. but if you do know of  places now please let me know!

The Fame That Was Not To Be

On Sunday, while walking down the streets of Arlington, just a couple of miles from Georgetown, my partner and I were stopped by Richard Reeves, one of the satellite anchors for ABC7 news. The hot topic of the day was the missile test by N Korea.

He wanted to find out what our reaction was to the test. He was hoping that we would say it was a terrifying experience. Being the ND taught pacifist, my responce was not going to be that simple.

Instead I just said I think all countries need to do away with nukes, the US and Russia started it, they need to take the first step. As long as even one country has it, how do we expect the others to give it up. infact the danger of other countries acquring it will always remain. Its only when we all do away with then only can we see some peace.  Otherwise what N Korea did was not unexpected so why is there such a big fuss.

He tried again to see if he could get me to give him a more mainline answer.. I knew  I had shot all chances of my claim to fame when I gave him a response similar to my first answer.. so did I make the 9 oclock news?? Obviously not:)

I am Back!! – PM to address nation

I am back after 5 months.. Been really long since i wrote but I have been following the events going on back home. I will now hopefully be more regular… the arrival of the little guy required some getting used too..
On the political front.. the pm will be addressing the nation soon. let’s see what he will be saying..
It has to be something that Zardari agreed too, so will be interesting to see what happens.

US Elections; the North West and Pakistan

Who would have thought that I would say this but after yesterday’s US presidential debate it seems maybe McCain may be better for Pakistan. I disagree with most of his policies except his foreign policy stance related to Pakistan, In Obama’s case his domestic policies make sense but his foreign policy views on Pakistan show his lack of experience..

When will US policy makers realize what a number of US Academics and South Asian experts have been trying to tell them, you cannot look at the north of Pakistan and think its a simple problem that the Pakistani’s don’t want to do anything about. On the contrary its an extremely difficult situation that may require the best minds who know the area to come up with a possible solution that “may” work.  if you look at Pakistan’s statistics you will note that there has been a massive spike in the number of suicide bombings all over the country. As was typical during the cold war, it seems the War on T has done the same, the war turf had moved from the country’s at war to that of ours. It is the Pakistanis who have been losing their lives. Let someone at least recognize that we too have lost thousands of innocent lives due to no fault of our own.

At the same time as Pakistanis we can’t sit and accept the increasing impact that the  right wingers seem to think they are having on our country. Shutting down girls schools, threatening media shops and barber stores, if we don’t do something about this now the situation will only get worse. A number of tribal elders who have tried to help their communities by standing up to these guys have already been killed. We cannot let their deaths be in vain.

We’ll realize too late that the demographics of our country have changed. It is important that for once instead of having a reactionary policy ( ie reacting after the effect) we need to have both an offensive as well as a precautionary policy. It may already be a little late for that and we may already be in the reactionary stage but we still need to make the effort.  We have been complacent for too long and have accepted this violence for too long, its time we stepped up and protected our cities so that our children can be free to go where they wish without us worrying about potential suicide bombings…