Strength and determination: An interview by Varda Nisar
Raees Fatima: Continuing with her crusade
There are very few people in this world who know what is their calling, and it is in these rare people that we find a determination that doesn’t stop them ever from doing what they think right. Raees Fatima is one of them. Her love for Urdu is still strong and growing. Not only is she a well-known educationist but also a columnist and an author of six books in Urdu.
Getting her early education from Karachi, it wasn’t by chance that she fell upon this great love for Urdu. “I always knew that I wanted to be an Urdu professor, as I had always been interested in writing. Since an early age, I was exposed to Urdu literature and reading. I was always writing for my college newspapers and that love is still strong.”
Her education career covers almost four decades and she has left her mark in many of the colleges of Karachi, which include Jamia Millia, Saudabad College, where she taught for 12 years to then finally retire from Nazimabad College.
“I have never been able to deal with the corruption that exists so blatantly in our education system. I retired early because I could never lie about my age as many of my colleagues had done. Many of my older colleagues are still teaching at that college.”
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many things about the system which she was a part of that greatly agitate her. “When you construct a building and its basic structure is weak, you can never expect the building to stand on its own for long. That is the tragedy of our education system.”
She shows her displeasure on not only the coaching system that seems to be booming in the country but also the cheating mafia. “It is such a different situation now. Even a matriculate during my father’s time could speak better English and Urdu but now the education standards have stooped so low that you can’t expect the same from even a college student.”
Strongly against the coaching system, she says that she has always built a case against this latest trend. “Most of the professors don’t even bother teaching in the colleges anymore and I have seen that happening myself. They would be guaranteeing positions for the students that are taking classes in their college. How can we expect the system to work when this is the footing that we are building for the future of our youth.” Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s Episode of Fareed Zakaria GPS: Interview with Mathew Hoh
Today’s Episode at this show was definitely worth watching. It shows that how the views of the American people are changing, which is the need of the hour, drastically regarding the issue of Afghanistan.
In the episode, the interview was conducted with Mathew Hoh, the first to resign from Afghanistan and is now of the opinion that the government too should realize that the war in Afghanistan would yield no results.
According to his opinion, the USA is in the middle of a civil war in Afghanistan, which has no end, and can only be seen with regret, lets say 4 years from now, when we would come to realize that there is no future to this war.
The statement that really stuck was the line that went something like this we now have to realize that the Soviet Union came in to stabilize the situation in a country which had been devastated by the constant civil war.
The man of the hour - Mathew Hoh
It was interesting to note his observation regrading the difference in the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan according to him, there are two type of people, mostly those that are Pakhtun and living in the rural area, having a strong hold with their traditions, who just want to be left alone to their ownlifestlye. In Iraq, however, you had people that were feeling insecure and welcomed the allied forces. The people of Afghanistan are poor people, and thus the way and the new policies of the centeral government have only helped in increasing their negative perception about how the situation is being handled in this region.
His point of view about how in a population of 3 million, you can hardly stop a 100 or so people from joining a fringe group like the Al-Qaeda is also valid, to a point where the presence of the American forces or the increase of their numbers only help to justify the point of AL-Qaeda and their acts towards these troops.
A definite must watch episode.
Attack on the Islamic University
Not before has any tragedy hit home to me as much as the bombing on the Islamic University. You can call me an insensitive person who has no compassion for other people’s pain. But its not that.
You see, whenever the bombing used to take place in the many girls school in Swat, I used to dismiss it as a war-zone. Of course we said that it was barbaric, and that those people should be executed and all those words of hate and anger.
A Girls' School in Swat bombed off
Every time it happened in Peshawar, I again dismissed it by saying well it always happened there. NO big deal. The images on the tube managed to intice me for a minute until finally something more shiny comes along.
I was there when the blast took place on the 18th of October. The bomb went off in front of me. Although the impact lasted for almost 4 days but the fact of the matter was that it wasn’t unexpected. The loss of lives was immense, the effect on me even greater. How could that happen? How can anyone do that?
The attacks on the Islamic University for the first time scared me.. I have been scared since that day that it can happen here.. in my university. It can happen when I am taking my classes, it can happen when I am not in the university, but my friends are. They aren’t playing by the rules.. for them everything goes and we are a weak piece of humanity that has the power to do nothing.. our words, our tax money, our army, our prayers all of it is useless. Nothing can change the situation. Read the rest of this entry »
Lahore Attacks
LAHORE IS ONCE MORE UNDER ATTACK, AS MULTIPLE ATTACKS TOOK PLACE IN THE CITY IN THE EARLY HOURS, LEAVING 20 DEAD. THE PLANNED ATTACKS TARGETED THE SECURITY ZONES OF THE CITY, PUTTING SERIOUS QUESTIONS ON OUR INTELLIGENCE ABILITY
I am so furious right now.. and I am shocked right now. This is the country that can always be found bragging about how it can take over USA and India and Israel any day. And yet the situation in reality is that within a week, a certain pattern of attacks has continued, bringing the tally up to a 5.
3 attacks have taken place in Lahore, 2 in places that have already been attacked before, and despite warnings circulating of attacks in the Capital and in Punjab, the security preparations were less than perfect. Todays attack were targeted at the
- ELITE POLICE ACADEMY, BEDIAN
Almost 7 people have been reported injured so far, and the search is still on for any more suspected terrorist that might be in the building still.
A member of the Bomb Disposal Squad taking of a suicide jacket off of an Attacker
- THE FIA BUILDING,
The building has been cleared and the injured have been shifted to the hospitals. A suicide jacket was also found from the vicinity. The last time the FIA building was rocked from its very foundations (literally) was last year on 11th March when almost 26 people and injuring almost 176 people.
- MANAWAN POLICE ACADEMY, MANAWAN
At the Manawan Training School, grenades were fired, as a number of terrorist entered the building and started firing, while 2 suicide bombers blew themselves up. News is that the building is clear of terrorist. But then should the agencies be believd?
The recent attacks on GHQ tell us that the attacks on security agencies is being underplayed in the media. And there is no certainty, in my mind at least, that there wont be news of the fighting continuing and the security officials being surrounded by the terrorist as hostages.
I am so furious right now, where the hell was our ****** ** intelligence? Where was the security? Where is 50% of our budget that is used by these agencies going? What is it being used for?
Myths and facts about Kerry-Lugar bill
WASHINGTON: US Senator John Kerry, one of the co-authors of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, has issued a list of ‘myths and facts’ about the proposed legislation also known as the Kerry-Lugar bill.
This is how he explained the bill:
Myth: The $7.5 billion authorised by the bill comes with strings attached for the people of Pakistan.
Fact: There are no conditions on Pakistan attached to these funds. There are, however, strict measures of financial accountability on these funds that Congress is imposing on the US executive branch — not the Pakistani government, to make sure the money is being spent properly and for the purposes intended.
Such accountability measures have been welcomed by Pakistani commentators to ensure that funds meant for schools, roads and clinics actually reach the Pakistani people and are not wasted.
Myth: The bill impinges on Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Fact: Nothing in the bill threatens Pakistani sovereignty.
Myth: The bill places onerous conditions on US military aid to Pakistan that interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs and imply that Pakistan supports terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
Fact: The conditions on military aid reinforce the stated policy of the government of Pakistan, major Pakistani opposition parties, and the Pakistani military and are the basis of bilateral cooperation between the United States and Pakistan.
Myth: The bill requires US oversight on promotions and other internal operations of the Pakistani military.
Fact: There is absolutely no such requirement or desire.
Myth: The bill expands the Predator programme of drone attacks on targets within Pakistan.
Fact: There is absolutely nothing in the bill related to drones.
Myth: The bill funds activities within Pakistan by private US security firms, such as Dyncorp and Blackwater/Xe.
Fact: The bill does not include any language on private US security firms. The issue of how private security firms operate in Pakistan has nothing to do with this bill. The laws governing such firms —which are employed by many US embassies and consulates throughout the world — are not affected by this bill in any way.
Myth: The bill aims for an expanded US military footprint in Pakistan.
Fact: The bill does not provide a single dollar for US military operations. All of the money authorised in this bill is for non-military, civilian purposes.
Myth: The United States is expanding its physical footprint in Pakistan, using the bill as a justification for why the US Embassy in Islamabad needs more space and security.
Fact: As the US Embassy in Islamabad works diligently over the next five years to properly distribute the $7.5 billion to the people of Pakistan, it will need to take into account its own personnel and security needs to make sure it has the right staff with the right expertise on hand. This is common sense.
(Originally published in Dawn Newspaper on Saturday 10th October 2009)
Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize!
I have always been fascinated by this man.. He is for me a symbol of change.. And I don’t mean that because of his election campaign but because of the fact that he defied the odds against him and rose to be the Commander-of-Chief of the world’s biggest super power at a time when the situation in the USA was less that ideal. He took the oath at a time when due to such a less-than-ideal situation, any mistake of his would either be blamed on his lack of experience, or his race, or his color or his background.
A symbol of Change
Hearing the announcement yesterday of him winning the Nobel Peace Prize has certainly been a very happy moment for me, for here is a young president who is trying to bring a change into the world through dialogue, presenting a side of USA that we have rarely seen and trying to the clear up the mess that the last conservative administration left, not only in the White House but also in many parts of the world.
The announcement on the Nobel Peace Prize page says,
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples…. Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons….has as President created a new climate in international politics…. Multilateral diplomacy…..emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play…. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred….. for resolving… international conflicts…… stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations…… constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting….. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened…
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”
Oslo, October 9, 2009
The announcement automatically has followed criticism, which is no surprise .. i mean if his clothing can be an issue of such debate then this is a 100 time greater a news in magnitude…In the news published in Voice of America, this certain part was interesting.. Read the rest of this entry »
The Eid Issue
The one thing that is great about Pakistan is the fact that there are never any surprises.. you always know what to expect.. from the political humdrum to the price hike before Ramadan.. you can always be sure what is going to be around the corner.
And therefore the issue of the moon sighting is no surprise at all. As usual the scientist said one thing, the maulvi said one and the politicians played their part to get as much air time during this conflict as they can.
The controversy started from the sighting of the moon of Ramadan which happened a day earlier in NWFP. The zonal Ruet-i-Hilal committee sat a day earlier to sight the moon of Shawal, indicating of the fact that whether Eid would be on Sunday after 29 days of observing the month of Ramazan.
The moon was sighted, as could be expected, and the province of NWFP, wuported by the Provnicial GOvernment celebrated the Eid. This has led to a row between the Head of the Ruet-i-Hilal, Mufti Munib and several figures of ANP.
It is a shame that in a time and age of Science and technology that we live in, we have issues like these. But more than that, these things have to do a lot with the political hands that are at play in this region. There is a majority that is playing in the hands of the Saudi influence and would justify anything that the Saudi’s are doing and more so, they would think that it is okay for us to follow it too. The sighting of the moon and celebrating Eid according to it is just one of those issues.
The issue of the moon sighting always seems to be an issue only for Ramazan and then for Eid, and never for any other month.. which is shocking in itself.. and a bit disturbing.. for there has hardly been any Eid where this issue hasn’t risen causing the whole nation to question that if it would ever be possible to celebrate this day together…… Well there is always next year!
18 women die (unjustified) in Karachi….
As I type this, conflicting news about the number of people dead in Karachi is coming in to us. I have actually been prompted to write because of this news item.
I started writing on this topic earlier, at the start of the holy month of “Ramadan” and then I never completed it thinking that it has been said and talked about too long.. and just words can never do justice to the problem at hand. But when a problem causes 18 women (disputed number of death) to die, it becomes an issue worth speaking out about..
As soon as Ramadan approaches, you can bet your life that you would see the same old story running across every channel, desperate to sensationalize any piece of information that they can get their hand on. It is always the same drama with never any work done by the authorities or the media to stop this trend.
Right before Ramadan the authorities would say that the essentials of food would be within the reasonable price bracket so that the “awam” (people) don’t have to go through any trouble. And the same year the same story repeats itself with the crowd crying in front of any tv camera that they can find and repeating their mournful story about how the besan, cheeni, oil and all other stuff is beyond reach.
Like every other year, this Ramadan too, was no exception. We saw the usual hike in prices of food items, including Sugar, Floor, Oil, Fruits and vegetables, grams, rice.. just to name a few among a long list of items that more than half of the population of Pakistan can’t afford in the month of “Blessing”.
And therefore in the desperate attempt to get food ration that was being distributed at Kohri Garden, a locality at Karachi almost 18 women lost their lives.
We don’t have the exact scenario, but we can imagine what must have happened.. women lining up for food.. sometimes being a women in this country has its advantages…the desperate struggle to get some food items for your family, and in that struggle a riot must have been created.. resulting in this lose of life in the holy month of Ramadan…
Dawood Public School and the “controversial “course
The recent matter that has been made into a ridiculous controversy by the media is the case of Dawood Public School, Karachi.
The issue was created due to the syllabus that is being taught at the School, which contains material about human body and how it works, or to be more specific, “knowledge” about how the human reproductive system works. This has gotten a lot of criticism by 2 families, due to which their children were then expelled from the school, only to be taken later on. The name of the students include Alina Salman, Maheen Salman, Rabia Merchant and Aisha Merchant.
The more so called labeled secular media has played his part in simply ignoring the issue, while the more fundamentalist one has had a field day with it. They have only bothered showing one side of the “controversy”.
The blogs are also busy simply showing one side of the story and not much has been said about what the other side is.
An eye-witness who is also a teacher at the School had this to say about what happened, and how the parents, that have been made out to be the victims by the print media, so far reacted.
The parents actually attacked the teachers and the students. They bought a maulvi with them and he was constantly giving fatwas. They even snatched the scarfs off the staff members, screaming that if you are teaching such sort of course then you should not be pretending to be so righteous. The mother and the female member of the families attacked the female staff and even the kids.
This is what was done by the so called righteous parents at the school and to the teacjers. Apparently all Islamic values and teachings went out of the window when they were attacking the female staff of the school.
Now to balance out the argument and tell you the other side too. Lets suppose that the school is wrong, that what they are teaching is preposterous and should be banned immediately. Okay sure. But what if tomorrow they decide to become doctors, what then? For to see things in the near-future, what if they decide to take biology as their subject in O-Levels. Now you cant expect that University of Cambridge would be changing their course for 2 families right?This is what their course includes Read the rest of this entry »
The consequences of the War Technology
In my philosophy course, there was once a discussion about how the recent developments in the War technologies has made war more easy and horrendous.. not only from a technology point of view but also from a Psychological point of view.My teacher argued that now since we don’t get to see the impact of our action, the impact of killing a person is dramatically less than it might have been, lets say in the Crusades.
Last night during watching Vantage point there was a scene when the terrorist Mastermind is able to shoot at the President, make a bomb go away all while simply sitting somewhere and it makes one realize that war and attacks simply have become too easy now to make happen. They don’t require a guilt factor and they don’t make you suffer over killing someone since you are so far away that you are able to disassociate yourself with the reality of the ground.
The argument against this can always be that the media is now there to provide us with the visual link to what is happening far away and that we can see the impact literally unfolding before our eyes. That is true. It was much clear during the recent Palestine Conflict and it was therefore that there was such a huge support for the Palestine Cause and such a pressure to stop the attacks and they did work in making the conflict stop.
Btu then it is also the choice of the media what it chooses to show or not. Such a case in point is the drone attacks that have been happening in the North of our country, Pakistan for almost an year now. The drone attacks have killed more innocent people then thy have the terrorist and thus now brewing the new threat of a new wave of terrorist as a reaction to this.
The media however has not given much attention to this and thus although the headlines with a Google map showing the area of attack is visible to us but not the actual scene of the disaster is ever transmitted to us. Maybe that is why the cause “STOP THE DRONE ATTACKS” hasn’t been able to catch much dynamics. Read the rest of this entry »
KARACHI: Park, road named after Rehman ‘Dakait’
KARACHI, Aug 21: The Lyari Town Council on Friday passed two resolutions with a majority vote to name Gabol Park and Tannery Road after Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch, popularly known as ‘Rehman Dakait’ who was recently killed in mysterious circumstances.
The council met under the chairmanship of its convener Naib Nazim Jamal Hyder and paid tribute to Sardar Rehman’s efforts towards restoration of peace and elimination of crime in Lyari.
Town Nazim Mahmood Hashim said Sardar Rehman Baloch was punished for helping the authorities maintain law and order and eliminating the drug menace and crime in Lyari. “He was a Baloch who had set up peace committees in the town,” he said, attributing a sharp decline in the crime rate in the town to the committees called the people’s peace committees.
The nazim demanded an impartial inquiry into the controversial “police encounter” that resulted in the death of Rehman.—APP
The orignal post can be read at http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/karachi-park%2C-road-named-after-rehman-dakait-289)
Chitti Hatia
I got the chance to watch the film “Chitti Hatia” or White Shops by Sharad Sharma, as it was being screened today at the Audio Visual Department, organized by Department of Visual Studies.
The Poster of the film "Chitti Hattia"
The film was simply an effort of Bitto Shah to find the ancestral pre-partition home of his family in the area of Chitti Hatia, in Rawalpindi. The film can at best be described as the emotional search of a man. As from the point of view of story, it doesn’t contribute anything concrete, or anything new that people haven’t heard or seen before. At best, rather than being called a film it should have been called a page from some one’s diary.
The techniques of the film are nothing unique. The film has simply been shot at a handycam. And it should be acknowledged that they used every mean that they had with them to tell of their experience.
The film in itself has nothing new to offer, except maybe the emotions of a man determined to fulfill his fathers last wish, and the desperate search of that house in a country which has changed drastically since 1947. It gives an insight about how an artifical partition destroyed the homes and families of so many people.. yet nothing new.
I think the only powerful thing about the movie is the raw emotions that reaches out of the screen to touch you and make you realize that the pain of the partition has been felt by both sides for a much more longer time than we like to acknowledge.
Or maybe it is just about finding your roots. I guess that is the most important thing in the end.. finding out where are you coming from and wher are you going.. And it is a search that we are all a part of!
