Madspeak

There are endless articles appearing in a variety of newspapers that people should learn English. What the writers forget is that English is not exactly a perfectly spoken language - it is altered over a period of time. The type of English whch almost those columnists mention could very well be Latin. They have complete disdain for the type of English which people speak here. This English has its own pronounciations, its own spellings and a variety of phrases have competely different meanings. No one speaks what is sometimes called 'Queens English' or even 'Kings English', people speak as they understand or think it is right. The rules of grammar which seem to be carved in stone are shattered. As long as one person can understand the other, without having to be too academic about it. The columnist forget that the English they want is also changing in the countries where it is spoken, because it is the only language they know. In Pakistan people speak several

Imagine BBC telling its viewers who watch its programmes 'Click Online' - about the great porn websites it has found, but that of course would never happen. But this programme does tell its viewers about completely worthless websites. The websites which have been found are meant for kids. Grown ups have no use for them. Then there are websites about where news can be found, the BBC will never advertise an alternative news source. The claims of BBC being impartial and balanced absolute rubbish.

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