THE GORA SYNDROME
“And how does one keep looking so good when one is so busy?”, this being Information Minister Sherry Rehman’s opening line to Sarah Palin, a politician with no real credentials, and now the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate. If this wasn’t bad enough, President Zardari shook her hand and opened with, “You’re gorgeous. Now I know why...
Stepping Up
There are those who do and then there are those who talk. Fortunately for Pakistan there are more than enough people who can walk the walk while those with spastic thumbs, fingers, and jaws do what they do best – nothing but whinge, whine, and bemoan the state of affairs. The floods have caused massive...
The calculus of the flood
The floods have caused death, destruction, and misery on a scale never seen before in Pakistan’s history. Unlike the 2005 earthquake in the Northern Areas, the flood of 2010 has spread misery equally in every part of the country. The unprecedented flooding has already affected the lives of approximately 14 million people by wiping out...
Where did all our Vulcans go?
The energy, time and money Pakistan puts into politics, politicking and the art of wheeling-and-dealing blow the mind and the national wallet. Read any publication and there’s a scandal brewing, a politician staging a “dharna” about something, a scam in the works, or a disagreement about something or the other. All the quotes contained in...
Absurdistan
We live in strange times in a strange country. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pakistan and have chosen to live here, pay my taxes here and raise my children here. But as a student of political science and history, and an interested observer, I have seen fewer countries more bizarre than us. Approximately 30,000...
The Citadel
GHQ is the nerve center of the Pakistani military and is guarded by an Infantry battalion along with a similar number of the Defense Security Guards (DSG). Approximately 1600 military officials work at the GHQ who are responsible for running Pakistan’s military machine. Ten terrorists created mayhem for around 22 hours disrupting normal operations within...
KERRY-LUGAR AND THE CRITICS
It’s Bakra Eid and your neighbor sends you some meat from their goat which they have just slaughtered. You open the door and take the bloody tray. But then you send it right back saying that you didn’t like the cut which was sent over and that the tray was also not acceptable, and the...
DIGITAL ADVERTISING IN 2010
The year 2009 was a disaster of businesses across the globe. Precipitated by a financial crisis which began brewing at the beginning of 2008, it turned into a full blown financial tsunami by the beginning of 2009. The rest is history. Businesses found their credit lines dried up, budgets were slashed, people fired, and the...
How You Dare
Pakistan is lucky enough to have a visionary leader in the form of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain whose family has sacrificed so much for the people of Pakistan. So when this great leader’s younger brother Wajahat Hussain and three nephews were detained under the anti-terrorist law at Gatwick Airport in London for several hours upon their...
Ticks in our Midst
For those of you who don’t have dogs, ticks are probably the worst thing that happen to them throughout the year given Pakistan’s climate. Ticks for the uninitiated are parasites which live off the blood of mammals and occasionally reptiles and amphibians as well and are found commonly across the breadth of our country. If...
America / Foreign Policy / Holbrooke / IDPS / Obama / Pakistan / Politics / Publication / Saudi / Swat / Zardari
MICROMANAGING PAKISTAN
Richard Holbrooke is back and this time it’s to look at the refugee crisis as a result of the Swat Operation, meet with the folks he needs to, and generally earn his keep. By the looks of it Mr. Holbrooke spends as much time in Pakistan as President Zardari, and definitely much more time than...
The “But” Syndrome
The 27th of May bombing in Lahore, which has taken a minimum of 23 lives and wounded over 300 people can only be seen as a retaliatory strike by the Taliban who are finally at the receiving end from the Pakistan Army. The highly effective Army operation in Swat and Malakand Division now has the...
