Madspeak

On every Bakra Eid, all kinds of livestock throngs Karachi. The stench of these animals fills the air, besides they attract tremendous amount of flies - by their presence alone within the city is in itself a health-hazard. The entire city is turned into on gigantic cattle pen. Just because it is a religious duty it does not necessarily mean that people should choose to ignore the various diseases which these animals are likely to suffer from. The livestock owners who bring them over to the city are desperate to get rid of them - either because they are suffering from some kind of disease or another or that they are too old. Some of these animals suffering from internal bleeding due to some injury or perhaps of some sort of disease. Many livestock owners have their animals medicated, those medicines are in the bloodstream and some end up in the kidneys. Some of these are so sick in order to make look healthy they are overdosed with drugs long enough to survive and be sold during Bakra

The violence which ensued after Benazir Bhutto's assassination was far worse than her death. The rioting and violence which ensued immediately appeared too staged to be genuine many people died and select areas were damaged, cars were destroyed. Tactics normally employed by the MQM. Coming back to the matter of Benazir Bhutto, she got herself elected life chair-person of the PPP, turning it a one person party, no democratic process within the political party, which meant no one else would have the opportunity to lead the party. Benazir's father ZA Bhutto won the election in West Pakistan, was not because of who he was, rather what he stood for. It was his socialist stand and improving the conditions of ordinary people - the destitute and poor were made aware of their rights. The PPP won in West Pakistan, thrashing all the political parties peddling religion. The PPP party slogan was 'roti, kapra aur makan" meaning bread, clothing and shelter for all. This was th

Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) is distributing to its customers information update forms. There are a number of problems related to this updating of information. Karachi is a cosmopolitan city, it is not some sleepy village where people who never look for any other place stay. Karachi is in perpetual state of flux and it is practically impossible keep up with such constant changes: The information once updated by SSGC becomes out of date, as soon as it has been submitted People are constantly changing their premises, they may give information of where they were once living in, but the owners or tenants will make changes in those premises, so that information becomes out of date. The former owners are living elsewhere and have nothing to with the those premises. The people who have shifted to new premises cannot be expected to provide requisite details, because they have yet to know the place they are living in. There can never give an accurate a

After the local banks were denationalised - things have become worse - both for those who were employed in them and for those who have their accounts in them. Many bank employees were fired without thinking twice about the consequences - one of the many factors which have led the major disturbances in the country. The account holders are treated with absolute indifference. If their checque book has finished and have applied for a new one, if the new one is not collected within 60 days then the new checque book is destroyed - conveniently forgetting that the checque book belongs to the account holder and the bank has no business destroying it. It should keep it in trust so that the account holder can collect at has own convenience. An organisation called NIFT and the State Bank of Pakistan has prevented the banks from keep new checque books for more than 60 days and are required to destroy them. Whosoever invented this rule is a blithering idiot. Banks encourage people save money in

There are several websites entirely devoted to all kinds of conspiracy theories. Those theories may or may not be true - but then one can never certain what is reported in several respected media sources. My experience as a journalist has taught me that no one should believe everything what they read, hear or see even from some of the trusted media sources. Because many times they get the facts absolutely wrong. Almost all the time the news is given an angle and the common spin and plausible deniability The real story is buried inside a large amount of text and once that particular news item is heavily edited the facts emerge and quite possibility seriously embarrass a lot of people. One of problems with conspiracy websites is that none of them have any email addresses - or any other forwarding address. there is really no way to contact them. Even if there are email addresses most of the time they turn out to be fake - so it makes all those conspiracy theories sound like monologues an

The BBC did an assessment about as to who are the likely candidates within the military and intelligence services who if they could they would be able get rid (president) General Musharraf - the BBC's analysis concluded that there really was no one. Despite the second martial law (so called emergency) by this bastard General Musharraf - disturbances in the country and he is completely unable to do anything about them; the local media however shut down does not mean the reports of events are not being reported - the shortest route for the world to know what is happening in Pakistan is through India and everyone then the entire world finds out. The general has made a mess of practically everything. He does not know what he should do about the myriad problems which exist, because he never really intended to govern the country, he never had an agenda as to how to make things happen. All his time has been spent enjoying himself and granting favours to his cronies. He resorted to

The answer the purpose of education is to EDUCATE. Education is not about examinations, homework or classwork periods and class (grade) system. It is about providing students - knowledge, understanding and to indulge their deep curiosity of so many subjects and that there are in the world. Besides introducing them the enormous variety of subjects which exist in the world. Understanding by accessing to a great deal of sources of information. Many which may contradict one another. Provide proof fill in gaps in data. Education is about ideas and their orgins, it is information and its origins. The more we know the better we understand – but in the given circumstances, students are never encouraged to do this. Education is about the letting students know about the vast number of subjects which exist give them an idea is what can be learnt at least have an idea as to what kind knowledge exists in the world. None of this has anyting to do with thoroughly memorising a handfu

How idiotic can things be that a military officer, who is still in service and continues to remain in service is going to contest elections this year!? General Musharraf has refused to step down as the commander-in-chief of the army and the other ridiculous military titles which he continues to hold. Suddenly he believes in democracy. In that case every military officer should be promoted by the soldiers only vote for them - there should be absolute democracy in the army. But that does not happen because - officers are promoted by some stupid committee. The same which made promoted Musharraf to the rank of general. General Musharraf is a usurper and a traitor - he has no right to contest any election. An official from the USA has asked the general to resign from the armed forces and contest elections - but will General Musharraf heed this advice? The general knows resigning from the armed forces is no an option because he would have to explain - how he got power and what gives him t

General Musharraf - imagined it would be smooth sailing once he grabbed power. He imagined the people of Pakistan are docile and absolutely servile. But it came as a rude shock to him that when the unrests started. He is in a increasingly worsening state and does not know what he should do. The army knows that this could very well be the end of any kind of military rule. Prior to the present military rule - since no suitable military officer was found to run the country Experimental Democracy was carried out. The evidence of that lies in the fact that President Ghulam Isaac Khan remained President of Pakistan in the tenure of both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif who alternated as prime ministers they leadership was cut short and there were new elections every time. The other evidence of Experimental Democracy is that the post of Foreign Minister remained in the hands of Sardar Yakub Khan. The newspapers were full of stories terrible corruption in all the institutions just because of

General Musharraf in his speech today - threatened to massacre the people who are protesting aginst his rule. In the same breath he said he is not afraid of anyone (obviously meaning the people who want him out) except God. From kidnapper - General Musharraf has elevated himself to a potential mass murderer. Instead of bowing respectably he has become so desperate to hold on to power that he will the very people the military is sworn to protect. The running joke about the Pakistan Army is that since it cannot conquer any territory, it very successfully conquers Pakistan over and again. The only people the Pakistan Army can threaten forcefully are the citizens of Pakistan. The cronies of the present military officer running the country have announced that they will elect him for the next ten years. Which only means there will be no elections ever again. Because when the ten years are over he will be re-elected for another ten. But the bastard and the members of his junta forget tha

Our presen (CIA installed) military dictator: General Musharraf has shown that he has absolute unable to control things in the country. The chaos and anarchy which has enveloped the country not the result just because of the recent events, they are the result of the neglect of the country’s problems resulting in resentment which began to simmer over the years and and now has expkided in what the world is witnessing today. Military dictators have only purpose to run the country – that is personal gain by looting the country as much as they can. The problems of the state is none of their concern. Rather they feel so high and mighty, worrying about the problems of the country are too menial for them. No decisions can be made on whatever changes and improvements the country requires. The neglect of the economy harms the people, some take their own lives and others resort to crime on a very large scale which the police is helpless to deald with.. The only time ‘police action’ i

Way back in the late 1960s when General Ayub Khan saw the protests against, he too k the sensisble step and resigned from his post as president and handed over power to the Chairman of the Senate. The clownish and absolutely idiotic General Yahyah Khan disssolved the assemblies and made himself president - the result was there was a civil war and the country broke - because the issues the people were protesting against remained unresolved. The military had its humiliating time and was at the mercy of civilians again. General Musharraf should resign, before things become worse, if another military officer takes over in his place the country will plunge further into anarchy and cahos and result in far worse civil war, a reign of terror akin to what happened in France way back in the 18th century. Musharraf is hated for so many things, the list is very long. Musharraf has been insulted and abused. People would gladly tear him to pieces. The blunder he has been making is to meddle wi

Using the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO)- ther present miliary dictator of Pakistan has sacked two judeges of the Supreme Court. Most prominien tly Chief Justice Ifftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who was hearing a case on missing people The fact he was removed only goes to show that investigation in this matter would have exposed General Musharraf’s involvement in this matter. He is ordering the kidnapping of people. Kidnapping is a small crime as far as the good General and the entire Pakistan Army is concerned, it has resorted to mass murder in former East Pakistan the same can happen in what remains of Pakistan . Just because the judge has been removed does not necessarily mean that the crimes which he was trying to look into would go away. The fact the judge was removed by an executiive from General Musharraf directly implicates the General, the army and the entire security network. Everyone is guilty. Extra-judicial murders are the order of the day.

The USA has very high expectations from Pakistan. It wants it ‘ to do more in Afghanistan ’. But there is are some problems with that. If a First World country, which is also happens to be a super-power with unlimited wealth, resources with ability to manufacture and develop a wide range of land, air and sea weapons including advanced suirvalllance equipment, which it upgrades on a regular basis- cannot manage things in Afghanistan, then how can an undemocratic, dirt poor Third World Country with limited resources be in a position to really be able to have the same impact as the USA in Afghanista? Pakistan has so many problems of its own and now it is required a fight a full scale war and that too by diverting scarce resources away from infrastructure and social uplift projects. The last time Pakistan was used in the previous Afghan War against the Soviet Union, as soon as that war was over – myriad sanctions were imposed by the USA as if all of a sudden Pakistan wa

For 17 years Russia was disposing off the empire which was not made by the Communists but by the Czars who preceded them and were overthrown. In this time Russia has been consolidating its economic and military power. During this time it did not concern itself with events beyond its borders. After the house cleaning and everything retrurned to order, Russia is beginning to reassert itself. When US commentator was asked about his comments instead saying something insightful - all he said - to sum up -Russia is being run by gangsters. Now what exactly is that supposed to mean? For any country any other sovereign country a rebel state and its leaders rebel leader. No one accepts any country's independence. Does the US intend to arrest these criminals and super-corrupt people who are running Russia these days, does the US intend to kill them the way they murdered Saddam Hussein? Russia is said to have only a few friends - which the USA hates- China, North Korea and Iran. I

In hindsight, if Pakistan's Communist Party had swept the polll and taken over control of the government wouldPakistan today be less dangerous or more dangerous today? Of course the USA was so extremely against Communism that the polls were scrapped and General Ayub Khan took over in 1958. He eliminated all the members and communist party and its leaders. Had Communism been allowed to prevail, then the communist party would have eliminated feudalism, tribalisma and the fanatical mullahs(who a re a cause of so much trouble these days). Communist Pakistan would probably moved ahead economically. There would have been mass literacy and universal healhcare. But this was not to be what resulted is a country by miliatry dictators and their agents. As time showed communism was not something permanent. The Cold War official came to an end in 1990 so the communists in Pakistan would have been elected out of office and the country would have moved and developed to a new phase of its d

It is the history of the USA, when it intervenes with its forces - it never ever encounters a standing army - its soldiers end up fighting up the people of those countries who are spread out and for all practical purposes invisibles. Since it is so frustrating to be 'all dressed up and nowhere to go', US propagand leaders devote their time trying to dehumanise those people by giving them labels uch as Commies or Viet-Cong essentially all of whom were the people of Vietnam. In Iraq they are called Insurgents and in Afghanistan they are called Taliban. No country can ever combat the US armed forces head-on – so other tactics are used which drags wars on to uncounted years. The people who benefit from are international gun-runners. They supply weapons to anyone. These gun-runners fuel the war, their source of weapons and ammunition can be any country in the world. Just because Iranian made bombs have been found in Iraq does not necessarily mean that Iran has anything

I was watching a local private TV channel, which should be independent of state control. This channel in its news bulletin had no relevant news - but what startled me was three US officals said the same thing 'General Musharraf is the US' greatest ally against terrorism'. What is that supposed to mean exactly? Should it not have been said in the news item that Pakistan is the US' greatest ally against terrorism. Considering the material which was given to the newscaster he simply repeated 'General Musharraf is the US' greatest ally against terrorism, which could possibly mean that the US officals have something seriously against Pakistan and only care about their puppet General Musharraf and no one else. ---- Since the military regime reliases it is not possible to successfully block the Internet, peope have to pay more for unhindered acces. One company Cybernet is very officious about this - it wants the identity card of the people who subscribe to this

The ban on alcohol has been a tremendous loss to the country in several ways. People here are just as fond of drinking just as people anyone else in the world. When the ban on booze was imposed in 1977, the people who enjoyed having peg or two after a days work were deprived of their pleasure. The revenue generated by the sale of liquor was tremendous, by banning liquor this revenue dried up it went upto countless millions of rupees in today' terms it could several billion rupees annually. The people who had accepted liquor as their part of their life could not afford the smuggled liquor - many of them choosed to migrate to any place where theycould lead the life that they were accustomed to. Many of them were businessmen who preferred to take their business to some otther country. Many talented people which included artitst, authors, singers, musicians decided to migrate - the pleasure of drinking was something they missed dearly. The country has lost these people and in the

The move behind the outrage against Denmark over some illustrations published in a Danish newspaper, was not motivated because of some religious zeal - the reason had everything to do with dairy products. People who cannot place Denmark on the map leave alone read a map besides do not know how to read and write their own language - knowing what was written in Danish is out of the question. The milk and dairy cartel in Pakistan was forced to keep its prices at a reasonable level because Pakistan imports a great deal of milk and other dairy products from Denmark. This was done when this cartel tried to raise its prices way back in the 1970s. Now that Denmark is more or less out of the picture the local cartel can raise prices as it pleases. Australia offered meat at very low prices, around the range of Rs 3 per kilogramme, but this was not imported, although several Muslim countries import meat from Australia, after certifying that its halal. Here in Pakistan the price of meat is Rs