Pakistan – Page 4

Getting from A to B

June 7, 2010 by KO

bq. Zegras observes that fundamentally, people do not desire travel …. they wish to have accessibility. Travel is a derived demand, prompted by our activities. If we could make better use of telecommunications, or, if our cities were more compact, perhaps we would find less need for vehicle trips.

Chris Zegras on “transportation in urban areas:”:http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/786

It’s interesting, especially in light of the choices most Pakistani cities have opted regarding transport infrastructure – which in light of just about all recent academic research looks horribly wrong.

The CIA and the ISI sitting in a tree

March 31, 2010 by KO

The CIA and the ISI have a long history, but it seems they’re once again sharing the same playhouse:

The C.I.A. and its Pakistani counterpart, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, have a long and often tormented relationship. […] Yet interviews in recent days show how they are working together on tactical operations, and how far the C.I.A. has extended its extraordinary secret war beyond the mountainous tribal belt and deep into Pakistan‘s sprawling cities.

[…] Successful missions sometimes end with American and Pakistani spies toasting one another with Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky, a gift from the C.I.A.

Killing your own, by Poison

March 15, 2010 by KO

A common topic in urban drawing rooms around Pakistan is how far behind the country is from the developed world. Now, that will take a whole another blog post, but one interesting metric to look at is how many people the Pakistani state deliberately kills each year by poisoning them.

So the US govt. killed at least 10,000 of it’s own in a few years:

Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.

They had the good sense to stop, officially in 1933, but unofficially by 1930. Over here in Pakistan, the government continues poisoning industrial alcohol, and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to stop any time soon.

America, Nukes and Pakistan

November 11, 2009 by KO

In an article on nuclear weapons in Pakistan, the “New Yorker explores Pakistan’s relationship with America”:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/16/091116fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=all 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:

bq. 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”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/2009/02/a_short_history_of_asif_ali_zardari.html.

A criminal gang masquerading as a pious religious movement

October 18, 2009 by KO

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:”:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/world/asia/18hostage.html?pagewanted=all

bq. 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:

bq. *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.*

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

April 27, 2009 by KO

The News “reports”:http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=173977:

bq. 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.

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

March 21, 2009 by KO

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”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/15/jason-burke-pakistan bq.. 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 … Read moreA short doc on the impact of Aghanistan on Pakistan, and vice versa

Return of Justice, Pakistan edition, as Zardari exits backstage

March 16, 2009 by KO

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!

A short history of Asif Ali Zardari

February 18, 2009 by KO

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

November 19, 2010December 7, 2008 by KO

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

bq. 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”:http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/WaldfogelDeadweightLossXmas.pdf – 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.