America, Nukes and Pakistan

In an article on nuclear weapons in Pakistan, the New Yorker explores Pakistan's relationship with America and comes to a pretty grim conclusion:
.
bq. In an interview the next afternoon, an Indian official who has dealt diplomatically with Pakistan for years said, "Pakistan is in trouble, and it's worrisome to us because an unstable Pakistan is the worst thing we can have." But he wasn't sure what America could do. "They like us better in Pakistan than you Americans," he said. "I can tell you that in a public-opinion poll we, India, will beat you."

That's probably true.. the only real relationship with America is dependant on the crates of arms they send to the Army and the bribes they give people like Zardari. Some other tidbits from Musharraf:

Musharraf, who was forced out of office in August, 2008, under threat of impeachment, did not spare his successor. "Asif Zardari is a criminal and a fraud," Musharraf told me. "He'll do anything to save himself. He's not a patriot and he's got no love for Pakistan. He's a third-rater."

It's good that 2 years after his retirement Musharraf finally grew some balls and spoke about the idiot savant leader of Pakistan, Zardari.

A criminal gang masquerading as a pious religious movement

On TV screens across Pakistan empty heads discuss Taliban this, Taliban that, ranging from calling them soft cuddly creatures who need to be protected from the evil American's to pretty bad stuff. Somehow, though, the popular opinion seems to place them somewhere in the "bad, but misguided" bracket, or as Fox News would say, "our boys".

While there is a lot of reporting about the people the Taliban blow up, and the even more people the US and Pakistan Army have blown up in their 8 year old on and off again fight against the Taliban, there hasn't been much real reporting about the actual Taliban.

A NYTimes reporter was captured by the Taliban held for almost 8 months in captivity:

I had written about the ties between Pakistan's intelligence services and the Taliban while covering the region for The New York Times. I knew Pakistan turned a blind eye to many of their activities. But I was astonished by what I encountered firsthand: a Taliban mini-state that flourished openly and with impunity.

Everyone knows this in Pakistan, but here's the key part:

I saw the Haqqanis as a criminal gang masquerading as a pious religious movement. They described themselves as the true followers of Islam but displayed an astounding capacity for dishonesty and greed.

That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger

So, the old rule of thumb that you're never as tired as you think you are is true:

A spate of recent studies has contributed to growing support for the notion that the origins and controls of fatigue lie partly, if not mostly, within the brain and the central nervous system. The new research puts fresh weight to the hoary coaching cliché: you only think you're tired.

Iran

After much fuss and muss, the Irani govt. finally admitted to election fraud:

Iran's most powerful oversight council announced on Monday that the number of votes recorded in 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there by three million, further tarnishing a presidential election that has set off the most sustained challenge to Iran's leadership in 30 years.

The interesting part about the whole protesting the elections bit is how little the country actually listens or even respects their leaders. Khomeni must be turning over in his grave.

Milestones in the devolution of Pakistan: Death Penalty now mandatory for blasphemy

The News reports:

The death penalty is now mandatory for blasphemy, under Article 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The government has been making some noise recently about how they don't support the ongoing takeover of Pakistan by the Taliban, but their actions clearly speak otherwise. The terrorists had pulled 2 steps ahead of the Pakistan government by introducing a mandatory death penalty a few years ago, but the Pakistan govt. finally woke up and is now closing the "killing it's own citizens" gap.

The dark side of Dubai

A great article on the worlds capital to globalization and slavery: The Dark side of Dubai: Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. Johann Hari reports:

... "The thing you have to understand about Dubai is - nothing is what it seems," Karen says at last. "Nothing. This isn't a city, it's a con-job. They lure you in telling you it's one thing - a modern kind of place - but beneath the surface it's a medieval dictatorship."

...There are three different Dubais, all swirling around each other. There are the expats, like Karen; there are the Emiratis, headed by Sheikh Mohammed; and then there is the foreign underclass who built the city, and are trapped here. They are hidden in plain view. You see them everywhere, in dirt-caked blue uniforms, being shouted at by their superiors, like a chain gang - but you are trained not to look. It is like a mantra: the Sheikh built the city. The Sheikh built the city. Workers? What workers?

A short doc on the impact of Aghanistan on Pakistan, and vice versa

The video is a bit alarmist - this is a good article with a more balanced view: Our skewed world view won't let us see the real Pakistan

First for the good news: Pakistan is not about to explode. The Islamic militants are not going to take power tomorrow; the nuclear weapons are not about to be trafficked to al-Qaida; the army is not about to send the Afghan Taliban to invade India; a civil war is unlikely.

The bad news is that Pakistan poses us questions that are much more profound than those we would face if this nation of 170m, the world's second biggest Muslim state, were simply a failed state.

Return of Justice, Pakistan edition, as Zardari exits backstage

A number of people asked to me about whats happening in Pakistan, so to answer some of their questions - and also because today is a momentous day in Pakistan's history - here is what happened this weekend, March 12-16, 2009. In my opinion, the most important (good) event In Pakistan's history!

The endless boredom of Saudi Arabian youth

What do you in in a country where a king and his not-so-royal family owns everything, and gives the entire population a stipend so they go off somewhere and don't bother the king? Go drag racing!

This may be the most popular sport of Saudi youth, an obsessive, semilegal competition that dominates weekend nights here. It ranges from garden variety drag racing to "drifting," an extremely dangerous practice in which drivers deliberately spin out and skid sideways at high speeds, sometimes killing themselves and spectators.

For Saudi Arabia's vast and underemployed generation of young people, these reckless night battles are a kind of collective scream of frustration, a rare outlet for exuberance in an ultraconservative country where the sexes are rigorously segregated and most public entertainment is illegal. They are, almost literally, bored out of their minds.

"Why do they do it?" said Suhail Janoudi, a 27-year-old sales clerk who was watching the races from the roadside with a faint smile around 1:30 a.m. "Because they have nothing else to do. Because they are empty."

A short history of Asif Ali Zardari

Asif Ali Zardari hails from a feudal background - what that means is his father owned land, probably around a few thousand acres somewhere in rural Sindh. The locals who live and farm on the land pay the landlord a rent, or often times rent + half the produce from the land. Generally, this is the only legal source of income for most landlords.

Asif's family didn't have much land as compared to the larger Sindhi landlords, and like every other Pakistani landlord, their farming practices were backwards and highly inefficient, making them in essence relatively poor, as compared to the other much larger land owning families in Sindh. While always immensely rich compared to the average Pakistani, Asif grew up with a chip on his shoulder as the class he measured himeself against was much wealthier. Perhaps thats where his innate desire to go overboard on the pursuit of wealth grew from.

Feudal landholders in Pakistan are generally not very rich, despite impressions to the contrary. Their landholdings don't generate much income. With the spread of industry and urbanization, a number of landlords have become much richer as their lands were near growing cities, hence increasing their value many fold - which enables them to sell off bits and pieces to add to their income.

The deadweight loss of Bakra Eid

The gift giving season which is Christmas is just around the corner, and once again billions of dollars are going to waste:

in general, people spend a lot more on presents than they're worth to those who receive them, a phenomenon called "the deadweight loss of Christmas." A deadweight loss is created when you spend eighty dollars to give me a sweater that I would spend only sixty-five dollars to buy myself.

The full paper The deadweight loss of Christmas - is a short, and interesting read.

While economists estimate that up to a third of the value of gifts exchanged at Christmas is lost, as the receivers value the gifts lower than what the giver bought them for, Bakra Eid is a bit like Christmas where everyone buys and receives the same gift - meat!

While there are other, non-economic benefits to the production and giving of the traditional Bakra Eid gifts, as an economic activity Bakra Eid is more akin to the Titanic, with all the hard work and effort required to save up a 100 billion rupees wrecked, with a few hardy survivors gobbling down their gifts, and the vast majority seeing all their hard earned cash slaughtered, with a few choice pieces of meat left at the end.

Zardari: We don't need no Education

Atanu Dey has been writing about the importance of education in the third world - it's basically the only way to to rise out of poverty, a point which Nicholas Kristof made recently:

Quick, what's the source of America's greatness?

Is it a tradition of market-friendly capitalism? The diligence of its people? The cornucopia of natural resources? Great presidents?

No, a fair amount of evidence suggests that the crucial factor is our school system -- which, for most of our history, was the best in the world but has foundered over the last few decades.

Pakistan just turned it's back on this whole education thing by appointing Senator Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani as Minister for Education. This is someone for who an arrest warrant was issued by the Supreme court of Pakistan, for ordering a family to hand over five minor girls for marriage to a family to compensate for a murder in Jacobabad.

Older Entries

• President Obama - Posted 05 Nov 08 in America
• Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Posted 02 Nov 08 in Books
• The great Pakistani stock broker bailout - Posted 27 Oct 08 in Pakistan
• Information poverty - Posted 18 Oct 08 in Pakistan, Technology
• While the rest of the world is poised on a cliff, the Pakistan economy has already fallen off - Posted 10 Oct 08 in Pakistan
• You know your country is fucked when.... - Posted 30 Sep 08 in Pakistan
• Why Pakistan Will Implode - Posted 28 Sep 08 in Pakistan
• Tarun Khanna: Billions of Entrepreneurs - Posted 26 Sep 08 in Books
• The gigantic house of cards, formerly known as Wall Street - Posted 24 Sep 08 in America
• Pakistani Senator says burying alive three teenage girls and two women is part of "our tribal custom" - Posted 30 Aug 08 in Pakistan
• News of the day: Asif Ali Zardari 'suffering from severe mental problems' - Posted 26 Aug 08 in Pakistan
• M. Asghar Khan: We've learnt nothing from history - Posted 26 Aug 08 in Books, Pakistan

Search this site

Use Google to search this weblog. Who knows, you just might find something of interest...

	Web ko.offroadpakistan.com