Madspeak

When the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won the majority vote in West Pakistan - the reasons were for what it stood for - it had nothing to do with the people who led it. The slogan 'Roti, kapra aur Makan' meaning 'Bread, clothes and housing for all' was powerful and elections proved it was also was very popular. Other political parties relied on nationalism and religion or some other values which did not benefit anyone. The PPP enforced all the International Labour Organisation's conventions. This brought about a major change in an otherwise extremely repressed society. The previleged and the rich could literally get away with murder - people were not employees - they were absolute slaves. There were no laws protecting them. Many businessmen who had become accustomed to the old ways of runing their businesses with absolute disregard for the people they had hired realised they were not going to get away with any kind of abusive behaviour and not forcing people be...

There was this anecdote of a prostitute who was infected with multiple sexual trasnmitted diseases (STD) obviously as a result of unprotected sex with her customers. Eventually when one of her customers was suffering from AIDS, she knew nothing about the disease - anyway he paid for her services and left. The strangest thing was her body's immune system was so overactive protecting her from all the diseases she was suffering or could have ended up suffering from - but she showed no sign of illness, when AIDS entered her body - it was neutralised. This was found out by a survey team trying to find out about the prevalence of AIDS amongst prostitutes. This particular prostitute was unique her body's immune system did not fall apart due to AIDS. Only goes to show that unless the human body's immune has something to do, it will become weak. Intensely sanitised societies and with tremendous stress on hygiene all the time weakens the immune system, because there is nothing ...

Holding hands and touching - is in a spirit of friendship, closeness - it does not make anyone uncomfortable. Nothing is made it out of such things here. It is fairly common to touch and pat, or have ones arms over another's shoulder - the sentiment is simply a sort mutual respect for one another nothing else. However any form of touching is considered seriously unacceptable by whom are referred to as Westerners. For them touching is seriously offensive if not downright criminal and their reaction is exremely obnoxious. But they are baffled in the way people conduct themsleves in public here. They cannot understand why no one reacts with rage. A term I found out was a new development - 'privacy space' an invisible barrier beween one person and another. Which is downright inhuman. A violation of this space is reason enough for being rude and generally behave badly. Distancing oneself from all others. The idea of being aloof and absolutely indifferent is a dangerous dev...

It is well known that many people cannot afford to pay doctors and hospitals - which automatically results in their death. The extremely poor die anyway - because they never get to eat the proper food and do not have access to clean drinking water. The do not have the right clothes and have no shelter, these people are going to die - these are the nameless, faceless lot whom no one cares to know about. So the question about caring for such people and really trying to save their lives - that will never happen. Euthanasia is a very controversial issue, just as capital punishment is. The right for the state to decide as to who should die and should live. What a clever way for someone to commit murder withouit ever getting caught - in the case of capital punishment an innocent person can be framed, lots of fake evidence and lots of people blatantly committing perjury and thus this person ends up being executed for a crime he did not commit. Later it is found out that he really was in...

Yesterday nigh I saw a convoy of cars and vans, people were being asked to participate in 'million man march' against a propsed plan to privatise the examination board system - the organisation is sponsored by the Agha Khan. What is surprising though that no one has proposed a similar march against rising prices of virtually everything. People should be demonstrating en masse against the outrageous increase in prices of practically everything. It is surprising no political party has taken up this issue. Of course one can rule out religious polical parties - they have no agenda, no manifesto except how to promote religion. They do not take up issues such as rising prices, growing unemployment, crime and suicides. They also have no charitable function. As for the other political parties - it is surprising that the problems faced by ordinary people does not interest them - they may make lot of noises in the parliament - but do not have the courage to call for a mass protest a...

How silly can people be - just because no one posts a reply to my blogs - does not mean they haven't been seen - where I had written my blog - has a system whereby it can block websites. What I wrote must have infuriated a lot of people - it only goes to show that what I am 'blogging' is being read and driving people crazy. Oh well there goes the freedom of expression!!

General Musharraf's junta has increased price of virtually everything. Milk, flour, petrol and gas have become terribly expensive. The cost of electricity, telecommunications and air fares are ridiculously high. This military dictatorship has become intolerable - the criminal increase in price of things should not go unpunished. It is obvious the military does not care what anyone thinks. It imagines public opinion is of no consequence. But when public opinion turns into a mass uprising it will be impossible to control and manage. The military officers will shed the uniforms and hide their ranks and pretend they have no association with the military. Military rule always has will always mean absolute corruption. Military dictators have absolute power and that means they are absolutely corrupt. They do not represent anyone except the members of their junta. The present democracy is a facade - Shaukat Aziz imported from abroad was finance mininster now he is prime minister. He has no...