Composer reinvents the piano, Interview: Riffat Alvi, Rumi's Masnavi, part 2: Eric Margolis, A Date with Theocracy,

Rumi's Masnavi, part 2: Under the surface Mystics in the Islamic tradition after Hallaj (executed in 922) usually addressed themselves to two audiences simultaneously: the common folk not privy to the mysteries of esoteric discourse, and for whom it might seem blasphemous; and to an initiated elite. Rumi argues that since the Qur'an contains seven layers of meaning, providing sustenance for both common and elite readers, the perfect teacher should provide a smorgasbord of nourishment to suit the taste and constitution of every potential pupil (Masnavi 3: 1894-7). Nevertheless, readers do bear some responsibility for closing the hermeneutic circle by listening carefully for the speaker's inner meaning. As the reed flute complains in the opening lines of the book:

I raise my plaint in any kind of crowd,
in front of both the blessed and the bad.
All befriend me hearing what they want to hear
None seek those secrets that I bear within

Masnavi 1: 5-6

Composer reinvents the piano: For a non-pianist, the idea of a microtonally fluid piano might seem either no big deal or baffling. But this weekend a composer will reveal the result of a 10-year mission – nothing less than the reinvention of one of the most important instruments in western music. Geoff Smith believes he has come up with the first multicultural acoustic piano – what he has trademarked as a fluid piano – which allows players to alter the tuning of notes either before or during a performance. Instead of a pianist having a fixed sound, 88 notes from 88 keys, Smith's piano has sliders allowing them access to the different scales that you get in, for example, Indian and Iranian music. For good measure, Smith has included a horizontal harp.

Interview: Riffat Alvi - Riffat Alvi holds an eminent place among the 20th century artists who bolstered the art scene in Pakistan. An artist of considerable repute, Alvi’s paintings are showcased at notable institutions and galleries in the UK, Germany, Iran and Nepal. As director of the VM Art Gallery, which she has been running for the past 25 years, she strives to bring international art and artists to Karachi, and uses the gallery as a forum to teach art to aspiring artists. Presently, Riffat Alvi is exhibiting her art work titled Siyah Aur Safaid at Karachi’s Canvas Art. Alvi speaks to Newsline about her exhibit and the state of art and art institutions in Pakistan

India buoyed by Bangladesh's 'gift' - After years of delays, Bangladesh has handed over to India two top leaders of the banned group that is waging a war for the sovereignty of the Indian state of Assam. The move is expected to have an immediate effect in the resolution of a host of problems between the countries, not least of all trade. It also gives India the opportunity to end the decades-long insurgency in Assam. - Sudha Ramachandran

Delhi displays multi-vector diplomacy - Converging regional interests and expanding nuclear and defense ties have put India-Russia relations on a positive trajectory. India is adjusting to the new balance of global economic power and the Barack Obama administration's shifting approach to South Asia, while both Moscow and New Delhi fear "collateral damage" to their national security should the Afghan situation worsen. - M K Bhadrakumar

Books of the decade: Your best books of 2006 Desai and Penny stole the awards, but O'Hagan's Be Near Me and Jacobson's Kalooki Nights were my choice for 2006. What were your favourites? Looking back at the lists of 2006's publishing highlights was a reminder not only of pleasures enjoyed, but of reading duties neglected. High on this list of shame was Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. Radiating out from the story of a girl living with her grandfather in Nepal, the novel followed its disappointed characters to New York and England, and impressed many with its astringent take on multicultural discontents, not least the Booker judges, who made it a surprise winner. Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves made a similar stir with its account of life in the icy wastes of northern Canada in the 1860s – written without the author having visited Canada – and took off the Costa award for its trouble. I didn't read that one, either.

Desai and Penny stole the awards, but O'Hagan's Be Near Me and Jacobson's Kalooki Nights were my choice for 2006. What were your favourites? Looking back at the lists of 2006's publishing highlights was a reminder not only of pleasures enjoyed, but of reading duties neglected. High on this list of shame was Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. Radiating out from the story of a girl living with her grandfather in Nepal, the novel followed its disappointed characters to New York and England, and impressed many with its astringent take on multicultural discontents, not least the Booker judges, who made it a surprise winner. Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves made a similar stir with its account of life in the icy wastes of northern Canada in the 1860s – written without the author having visited Canada – and took off the Costa award for its trouble. I didn't read that one, either.

Eric Margolis - In the end, there will be a negotiated peace that includes Taliban. But how many Americans, allies and Afghans must die before it comes?

A Date with Theocracy - It is now clear to the Taliban what has been obvious to many observers. Obama is not interested in an American victory in Afghanistan by 2011. He is interested in an Obama victory in America in 2012. He wants to campaign as the President who brought the boys home without giving the impression that he has been weak in the process. He inherited an Afghan war with some 10,000 American soldiers in combat. That figure has been short-tracked upwards to 100,000, partly because Obama purchased his way into the muscular pro-war segment of the American vote by criticising Iraq and upgrading Afghanistan into the war of necessity. He is paying his dues to that section of American opinion by fighting a cosmetic war. The Taliban have often said that while NATO has a clock, they have time. In 2011, irrespective of ground conditions, the NATO clock will go into reverse sweep.

No corrupt should go scot-free: Nawaz, No downsizing, no reshuffle of cabinet: Gilani

No corrupt should go scot-free: Nawaz - LAHORE: PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif has said there should be strict laws against corruption so that no corrupt person could go scot-free. [Amen! And that should include Sharif and his cronies too. No statute of limitations~t]

No downsizing, no reshuffle of cabinet: Gilani- ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s announcement on Tuesday that he was not dissolving, downsizing or reshuffling the cabinet in the coming days, brought a sigh of relief to the worried ministers. [Worried ministers? Yes of course! Who cares about the suffering awam ~~t]

AnjumNiaz: Citing the Oct 27, 2005 report of the 'Independent Inquiry Committee appointed by the UN' the NAB alleged "Petroline FZC, an offshore company of the former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto paid $ two million as kickbacks to the defunct Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussain in violation of UN sanctions and violating all norms of international law." Its findings are based on the 623 pages of the UN report in which Petroline FZC paid kickbacks to an Italian MP called Paolo Folloni; a Frenchman named Michel Grimard, a Lebanese national named To'ma; Romanian Labour Party and Yugoslavian Left wing Party. "In total Petrozine FZC purchased Iraqi oil worth $150million. The surcharge paid to Iraqi regime amounts to $ two million, which was paid into the bank of Jordan. Petroline FZC was financed by an American oil trading company called Bayoil, which is facing prosecution in the US for its dealing in the oil-for-food-programme."

Sandow Birk

Pakistan bombings: The real martyrs, Timeline Pakistan 2009

Timeline Pakistan 2009 Huma Imtiaz's useful compilation

Pakistan bombings: The real martyrs - On December 4th of 2009, a handful of men set foot into a guarded mosque in a residential compund, with grand aspirations of becoming martyrs within the hour. The joke's on them, as they wake up in their sweaty and blistering "paradise". Martyrs are immortal. These men are nameless and will never be remembered. But it's their victims that became the martyrs on December 4th. It's young men like Saad that leave a legacy behind.

Over 1,000 Delegates for Peace Will Mark 1st Anniversary of Gaza Invasion, Protest Ongoing Israeli Siege

Where Does Tiger Woods Fit Among the Biggest Sports Sex Scandals of All Time?

Obama Advisers Backpedal on Afghanistan: "There Is No Timetable;" "We're Not Talking About an Exit Strategy"

The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods

The Choice at Copenhagen: Heroism or Collective Suicide

Melting Himalayan Glaciers Threaten 1.3 Billion Asians

Cotton heads for the dinner table - Keerti Singh Rathore's work on rendering cotton seeds suitable for humans to eat raises the prospect of cheaper food for millions. With modified seeds now meeting World Health Organization and US Food and Drug Administration standards for food consumption, they may soon face the test of public taste - and farmers' doubts. - Raja Murthy

Chomsky Half Full - Noam Chomsky discusses his forthcoming book, the hypocrisy of neoliberalism, where he feels hopeful about democracy despite U.S. terrorism, and his friendship, okay, passing acquaintance with Hugo Chavez and other pink tide presidents

Kamran Shafi, Does God Care? “the Americans have the watch and we have the time.”

Kamran Shafi - India should know that there are growing numbers of people in Pakistan who feel that the Indians are more comfortable talking to dictatorships!

Does God Care? Recently, I met a Christian from Lahore. He has come to the US to do his PhD. I listen to him with a keen ear. I want to see if he ever uses the word ‘Allah’ in expressing his faith in the divine. Instead, he keeps on saying ‘Khuda’.

Aisha Ghani - While evidence for this widening space of acceptability for Islamophobia exists everywhere, it is particularly apparent in the colloquialization of ideas through language. Most recently, Tunku Varadarajan’s article for Forbes, “Going Muslim,” reveals that Islamophobia has entered into a free market place of ideas; a market in which the ‘value’ of a concept is determined by what it produces in terms of social and monetary capital. It is, after all, a combination of two considerations – readership and thus sales – that enables Varadarajan’s opinion to find a platform, tellingly, in Forbes

The chasm between these two excerpts from the same column by Roedad Khan:

1: We soon realised that under our existing judicial system it takes longer to get an answer from the accused than it takes to send a man to the moon and bring him back. There are so many loopholes in the system that the final judgment could easily be avoided for years. On one pretext or another, Ms Bhutto successfully evaded submitting her reply to the prosecution case made out against her after a long, tortuous, and dilatory process in which some witnesses were cross-examined for months. No wonder, some of them became nervous wrecks. With no support from the federal government, the fate of the references was sealed and the result was a foregone conclusion.

2: The nation is looking up to the Supreme Court, the only ray of light and hope, amid the gloom, to ensure ruthless accountability of those who betrayed the people’s faith, who bartered away the nation’s trust and who plundered the country’s wealth. Unless the men at the top are called to account now and those found guilty among them sent to prison, the entire democratic process will be reduced to a farce once again; clean politics and an honest democratic government according to the Constitution and law will remain an illusion.

Rahimullah Yusufzai - The outnumbered and outgunned Taliban and other resistance groups in Afghanistan know they cannot fight such a large and well-resourced military force. As has been their practice, they will retreat instead of fighting head-on, melting away and regrouping whenever opportunity arises to inflict painful blows on the coalition forces. They could follow the principle laid down by one Afghan Taliban commander who famously remarked that “the Americans have the watch and we have the time.” [ or as Mao wrote - when the enemy advances we retreat, when it retreats we attack]

Tom Feelings

Early Islam, Part 4: The Mystic Tide

Early Islam, Part 4: The Mystic Tide By Namit Arora

Part 1: The Rise of Islam

Part 2: The Golden Age of Islam

Part 3: The Path of Reason

(This five-part series on early Islamic history begins with the rise of Islam, shifts to its golden age, examines two major currents of early Islamic thought—rationalism and Sufi mysticism—and concludes with an epilogue. It builds on precursor essays I wrote at Stanford’s Green Library during a summer sabbatical years ago, and on subsequent travels in Islamic lands of the Middle East and beyond.)
__________________________________________

‘Mysticism is ultimately rooted in the original matrix of religious experience, which grows in turn out of man’s overwhelming awareness of God and his sense of nothingness without Him, and of the urgent need to subordinate reason and emotion to this experience.’ [1]

Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, first arose in Syria and Iraq in the 8th century CE. Arab conquerors, a century earlier, had taken Islam all over the Near East, which included lands with a long tradition of ascetic thought and eastern Christian monasticism—a tradition that valued religious poverty, contempt for worldly pleasures, and a secret world of virtue beyond that of obedience to law—no doubt encouraged by the fact that for three centuries, until after the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, Christians in the Near East were a minority subject to suspicion and persecution by the pagan Romans.

But old habits die hard, and even as Islam spread, many new converts, beneath a slim veneer of their new faith, persisted with asceticism and detachment. What transformed asceticism into mysticism was something quite radical: an unabashed love of God. This transformation has been symbolically ascribed to a woman from Basra, Rabi’ah al-Adawiyah (d. 801?), among the first to articulate the mystic ideal of a disinterested love of God, as in her prayer below.....

Married (Happily) With Issues

Married (Happily) With Issues
The idea of trying to improve our union came to me one night in bed. I’ve never really believed that you just marry one day at the altar or before a justice of the peace. I believe that you become married — truly married — slowly, over time, through all the road-rage incidents and precolonoscopy enemas, all the small and large moments that you never expected to happen and certainly didn’t plan to endure. But then you do: you endure. And as I lay there, I started wondering why I wasn’t applying myself to the project of being a spouse. My marriage was good, utterly central to my existence, yet in no other important aspect of my life was I so laissez-faire. Like most of my peers, I applied myself to school, friendship, work, health and, ad nauseam, raising my children. But in this critical area, marriage, we had all turned away. I wanted to understand why. I wanted not to accept this. Dan, too, had worked tirelessly — some might say obsessively — at skill acquisition. Over the nine years of our marriage, he taught himself to be a master carpenter and a master chef. He was now reading Soviet-era weight-training manuals in order to transform his 41-year-old body into that of a Marine. Yet he shared the seemingly widespread aversion to the very idea of marriage improvement. Why such passivity? What did we all fear?

In the end, I settled on this vision of marriage, felt the logic of applying myself to it. Maybe the perversity we all feel in the idea of striving at marriage — the reason so few of us do it — stems from a misapprehension of the proper goal. In the early years, we take our marriages to be vehicles for wish fulfillment: we get the mate, maybe even a house, an end to loneliness, some kids. But to keep expecting our marriages to fulfill our desires — to bring us the unending happiness or passion or intimacy or stability we crave — and to measure our unions by their capacity to satisfy those longings, is naïve, even demeaning. Of course we strain against marriage; it’s a bound canvas, a yoke. Over the months Dan and I applied ourselves to our marriage, we struggled, we bridled, we jockeyed for position. Dan grew enraged at me; I pulled away from him. I learned things about myself and my relationship with Dan I had worked hard not to know. But as I watched Dan sleep — his beef-heart recipe earmarked, his power lift planned — I felt more committed than ever. I also felt our project could begin in earnest: we could demand of ourselves, and each other, the courage and patience to grow.

Haroon Siddiqui, Cancer from Kitchen, When Pigs Fly,

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Siddiqui: Dragon Slayer still fearless: 'Mother of all Uighurs' wants international inquiry into Beijing's crackdown on Muslims in her province

She is the equivalent of the Dalai Lama – a leader in exile, battling Beijing over the persecution of her people in China. Her story is even more compelling. Whereas the Tibetan leader was anointed a child god and, at age 24, whisked out of China in 1959 on a donkey over the Himalayas to exile in India where he remains, she was a dirt-poor housewife who walked out on her abusive husband, became a multi-millionaire entrepreneur and a human rights activist, married a fellow-dissident and was persecuted and jailed

File this from Thomas Friedman under When Pigs Will Fly: That is why Mr. Obama is going to have to make sure, every day, that Karzai doesn’t weasel out of reform or Pakistan wiggle out of shutting down Taliban sanctuaries or the allies wimp out on helping us. To put it succinctly: This only has a chance to work if Karzai becomes a new man, if Pakistan becomes a new country and if we actually succeed at something the president says we won’t be doing at all: nation-building in Afghanistan. Yikes!

Nicholas Kristof: The removal of lead from gasoline resulted in an 80 percent decline in lead levels in our blood since 1976 — along with a six-point gain in children’s I.Q.’s, Dr. Landrigan said. I asked these doctors what they do in their own homes to reduce risks. They said that they avoid microwaving food in plastic or putting plastics in the dishwasher, because heat may cause chemicals to leach out. And the symposium handed out a reminder card listing “safer plastics” as those marked (usually at the bottom of a container) 1, 2, 4 or 5.It suggests that the “plastics to avoid” are those numbered 3, 6 and 7 (unless they are also marked “BPA-free”).

How to empty Guantanamo - By Michelle Shephard on Insight-

Special envoy Daniel Fried's task is to find homes for the dozens of prisoners the Pentagon has cleared for release.

Another Netanyahu con, Seamus Heaney, Leaving Fingerprints by Imtiaz Dharker, Gaza Freedom March,Arundhati Roy Disturbs Democratic Daydreaming

Another Netanyahu con: The fact that some of Netanyahu's most fanatic cabinet ministers strongly support this proposal is proof that it is a sham. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Likud Minister Beni Begin and Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon are among the most politically extreme and yet enthusiastic about the proposal. Begin told Israeli Radio on Sunday that his enthusiasm stems from the fact that the proposal ensures the expansion of settlements and achieves a marked acceleration in construction. Begin explained that it legitimises the building of 3,000 new residential units in the West Bank, which would house a record breaking 15,000 new settlers to the area within 10 months. In addition, infrastructure construction will continue uninterrupted, which will augment settlement projects after the 10- month freeze is over.

A field day for Seamus Heaney fanatics A tour through County Derry, whose landscape inspired many of the poet's best-known works - Passing Laurel Villa, you'd never suspect it was a Tardis. You have to enter this modestly proportioned house on the outskirts of the County Derry town of Magherafelt to taste its magic. Your first impression is of a beautifully kept B&B. Then you notice the photographs and paintings lining the walls: James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney. There are poems printed on linen, and first editions in glass cases. Upstairs you pass bedroom doors: the Kavanagh Room, the MacNeice Room, the Heaney Room. Laurel Villa is a shrine (though a very unstuffy one) � a genuine House of Poetry.

Leaving Fingerprints by Imtiaz Dharker - If the poet pitches it right, a collection's title can be made to act as a shop window: a place to signpost intentions, gesture at the frame of mind in which the poems were conceived, the wider landscape to which the poet was referring. They tend, of course, to be suggestive rather than prescriptive (think of Larkin's High Windows, or Don Paterson's Landing Light), but if you're after a quiet hint on how to approach the poems inside, this is the place to start. In Imtiaz Dharker's latest collection, however, the title doesn't so much hint as holler. From its subject matter and imagery right down to the pen-and-ink sketches of whorled, undulant landscapes with which she punctuates the poems, this volume is larded and smudged with fingerprints.

The Height Of Kitsch Uri Avnery

Obama- Israels Puppet By Paul Craig Roberts - It didnt take the Israel Lobby very long to bring President Obama to heel regarding his prohibition against further illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Obama discovered that a mere American president is powerless when confronted by the Israel Lobby and that the United States simply is not allowed a Middle East policy separate from Israels

Gaza Freedom March less than one month away - The Gaza Freedom March that will take place in Gaza on 31 December is an historic initiative to break the siege that has imprisoned the 1.5 million people who live there. Conceived in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and nonviolent resistance to injustice worldwide, the march will gather people from all over the world to march -- hand in hand -- with the people of Gaza to demand that the Israelis open the borders.

Arundhati Roy Disturbs Democratic Daydreaming By Trond �verland Listening to Grasshoppers; Field Notes on Democracy, Arundhati Roy, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin, India 2009, 240 pages, 499 rupees. - Arundhati Roy is an unusual Indian woman. Instead of acting the graceful upholder of traditional values, she goes on challenging the hard core of establishment thinking. Roy is India's leading commentator on such evils as militaristic imperialist capitalism, Hindu-supported genocide of Muslims, and dam disasters. In her latest book, Listening to Grasshoppers; Field Notes on Democracy, she hammers at perhaps the most central of all contemporary sacred pillars, i.e. that of democracy, which in her words �have metastasized into something dangerous�.

Govt plans to protect the corrupt, Sindhi Cap Day’ enthusiastically observed

Govt plans to protect the corrupt By Tariq Butt

ISLAMABAD: While the government may have leaked its intentions of not defending the infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), it clearly has no plans to abandon the NRO beneficiaries.

An impotent and toothless new law has been hastily drafted to protect the NRO tainted, whose cases would reopen instantly if the Supreme Court strikes down the NRO, as widely expected, in the high-profile cases being taken up by the 17-member bench today (Monday).

Sindhi Cap Day’ enthusiastically observed - The MQM Hyderabad zone arranged a programme where Sindhi caps were presented to journalists. A great number of party’s supporters and workers took out Sindhi Cap rallies. Similarly, thousands of PPP workers brought out many rallies. They danced to the tunes of traditional folk songs, chanted slogans in support of President Zardari, while some resorted to aerial firing all the way to the Hyderabad Press Club. Senator Maula Bakhsh Chandio, Sindh Minister Zahid Bhurguri and other leaders spoke on the occasion. Activists of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Sindh National Party, Awami National Party, Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party and Sindh Democratic Forum also brought out rallies.

Pablo Picasso

Science, poetry and prejudice

Abdus Salam’s 15th death anniversary went unnoticed recently. The 25th death anniversary of Waheed Murad that fell on the same day was celebrated with fanfare. They say nations which do not honour their great men cease to produce them. Science, poetry and prejudice

The Interview Ha’aretz Doesn’t Want You To See: Exclusive: One On One with the Leader of the Electronic Intifada

Rehaviya Berman conducted an interview with Ali Abunimah, for Ha’aretz, a few weeks ago. The Interview was never published. Berman decided to publish it on his blog [Hebrew] and I decided to translate it, for your reading pleasure:

Exclusive: One On One with the Leader of the Electronic Intifada

Rehaviya Berman

Meet Ali Abunimah, the son of a Jordanian diplomat, a Palestinian activist, and the man who brings the hottest news of the struggle to thousands of people. His message: Forget two states, one will be tough enough to get it right.

The Interview before you was commissioned by one of the the big newspapers. For a reason that has yet to be clarified, this paper decided not to publish the interview. It’s published here, because it’s the opinion of the editor that it’s important that this be read by the Israeli public.

How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan

When the history of the Obama presidency is written, that day with the chart may prove to be a turning point, the moment a young commander in chief set in motion a high-stakes gamble to turn around a losing war. By moving the bell curve to the left, Mr. Obama decided to send 30,000 troops mostly in the next six months and then begin pulling them out a year after that, betting that a quick jolt of extra forces could knock the enemy back on its heels enough for the Afghans to take over the fight.

The three-month review that led to the escalate-then-exit strategy is a case study in decision making in the Obama White House — intense, methodical, rigorous, earnest and at times deeply frustrating for nearly all involved. It was a virtual seminar in Afghanistan and Pakistan, led by a president described by one participant as something “between a college professor and a gentle cross-examiner.”

US takes hunt for al-Qaeda to Pakistan

US takes hunt for al-Qaeda to Pakistan - The real focus of the United States' new Afghanistan policy - despite the 30,000 troop surge - is not that country, it is across the border in Pakistan, an intermediary familiar with dialogue between the US and Afghan militants says. The US aims to concentrate on al-Qaeda. Once that group is fatally weakened, Washington believes, the way will open to a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA : Meet the commanded-in-chief - United States President Barack Obama chose as advisors a crew who had never seen a significant change and still can't. This stale crew has ensured that Afghanistan, the first of George W Bush's wars, is now truly Obama's war; and the news came directly from West Point, where the president surrendered to his militarized fate. - Tom Engelhardt

Zia Mohyeddin, Nadeem F. Paracha, Irfan Hussain

Zia Mohyeddin column My poor ankle
I remained on call throughout the next few weeks. The routine was ridiculously similar: the second or third assistant director would tell me to be on the set, ready and made-up, (there was no call-sheet) by ten' clock the following morning. He knew that the make-up and costume people -- even the sweepers -- didn't turn up till after 10, but he had his instructions. I obliged. Punctuality had been drilled into me as the first tenet of an actor's bible. We were both slaves to our inflexible incorrigibility.

Smokers’ Corner: One-unit-faith - Nadeem F. Paracha -Its people constituted Urdu-speakers (Mohajirs), Sindhis, Pathans, Siriakis, Baloch, Bengalis, and many others; and also people belonging to various Islamic sects and sub-sects. By imposing the ruse that Pakistan was ‘one unit’ (a collective body of homogenous Muslims) was a naïve evaluation that only ended up alienating the many ethnically distinct strains of Muslims and the minorities that made Pakistan their home. In other words, Pakistan’s identity and ideology should have been squarely based on a democratic acceptance of its ethnic, religious and sectarian diversity, instead of the establishment’s rather convoluted ‘one ideology for all’ brand of Islam. We are not an ethnically and culturally homogenous nation following a singular version of Islam, or of the state for that matter as far as religious minorities are concerned.

Irfan Hussain - The reality is that we have virtually blanked out our real problems, and concentrate instead on issues that may make for good television, but do not advance the core national agenda. Among the recommendations made in the Next Generation report, two have stuck in my mind: “Policymakers need to start planning for the long term”; the second one suggests: “Pakistan must start to build momentum behind a national mission for change.”
Frankly, I don’t see us doing either, given our unhealthy preoccupation for pulling the chair from under every (civilian) government.

Aivazovsky

The Saindak Saga, Rafia Zakaria, Ansar Abbasi ki bhee suno, Anjum Niaz,

The Saindak Saga The project was revived by Pakistan and China on March 22, 2002, with $ 350 million earmarked for development. The terms are exceptionally unfavourable for Balochistan and its people. MRDL, a subsidiary of the Metallurgical Construction Company of China (MCC) will run it in return for 50 percent of total revenue from mineral sales and also pay $ 500,000 monthly to Pakistan over the next 10 years. Balochistan will receive only $ 0.7 million per year as royalty. These figures expose the total disregard of Baloch rights by the Centre.

The unseen trauma of war �Rafia Zakaria - According to the World Health Organization, 90 percent of the internally displaced people made homeless by the fighting in Northern Pakistan are living in host communities where few life-saving healthcare facilities are available. As has been widely reported, there is a critical gap between the needs of these war-torn communities and the service available to them. Particularly needed are the services of female healthcare workers who can provide for the vast number of displaced women in the area.

Ansar Abbasi says: Both govt, opposition clueless on how to tackle terror

Phir aap hee kuch bataiyay Abbasi saheb.

Anjum Niaz: While Haqqani has earned the ire of the military after he got wiretapped, High Commissioner W S Hasan being caught red-handed on camera with boxes containing damning proof of alleged corruption against his boss is even more humiliating. By now the whole of Pakistan and Britain have seen the shock and awe on Hasan's face as he stepped out of the office of the prosecutor general in Geneva whisking away the "proof" in a Pakistani embassy car.
The PML-N also has a reputation of appointing "fixers" as envoys. Their phone conversations with their bosses back home have been bugged. Their deeds are a matter of public record. But still we easily forgive and forget the past and re-elect the same discredited leaders who, in turn, send the same dishonoured, second-hand and mediocre stuff as ambassadors to foreign capitals.

David Brooks, Huma Dar, Ayesha Ghani, Surprising Study On Terrorism: Al-Qaida Kills Eight Times More Muslims Than Non-Muslims,

David Brooks: But, of course, the Obama campaign, like all presidential campaigns, was built on a series of fictions. The first fiction was that government is a contest between truth and error. In reality, government is usually a contest between competing, unequal truths. The second fiction was that to support a policy is to make it happen. In fact, in government power is exercised through other people. It is only by coaxing, prodding and compromise that presidents actually get anything done....

Huma Dar: In her astute deconstruction of Varadarajan’s proposal, Aysha Ghani writes that in “the aftermath of “Going Muslim” ” she “shudders” to think that because of her critique and her sentiments, she “too might be categorized as an un-integrated American Muslim.” It is significant to note that Varadarajan’s argument here is even more insidious. He is asserting that being “integrated” or otherwise is moot for Muslims as their religion is founded on “bellicose conquest, a contempt for infidels and an obligation for piety” that may make them “more extreme” such that their “integration” is never to be trusted. It is simply a “camouflage” that could be “discarded” at any “calculated moment” of “revelatory catharsis.” Thus, all or “perhaps many more than a few” Muslims are just waiting to come out of their “camouflage” and one never knows which ones. This is where Varadarajan’s fear-mongering actually slides into fascism: the construction of the Muslim as the perfect Homo Sacer – uncannily, the term in German concentration camps for those who lost the will to live was “Mussulman”(3) – because s/he is intrinsically unpredictable, untrustworthy, fundamentally unlike the “civilized us,” and therefore ultimately intractable and dispensable. Through a deconstruction of Varadarajan’s article, I propose to show here the confluence of Islamophobia in America and with that operative in India, in the new configuration of global political and economic powers, offering a preliminary understanding of some emerging positionalities and relationalities. This will also be an initial foray into theorizing the manifestations of Islamophobia and its commonalities as well as divergences from racism as such.

And this from the Aysha Ghani link above: In closing, here’s another one from Huxley, dedicated especially to the Professor, “A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt.” Calling upon and speaking for the nation in order to assuage your own fears is not a new idea - the previous administration provides evidence for this - but let us see if it works. In the meantime, I’m developing a few of my own fears, particularly concerning the possibility of being under the tutelage of a professor who’s not only frightened by my Muslim presence, but who expresses this fear through hate speech that is neither recognized nor condemned as such.

Pakistan and the Global War on Terror: An Interview with Tariq Ali - Mara Ahmed and I were given the opportunity to interview Tariq Ali when he spoke at Hamilton College in Upstate New York on November 11, 2009, during his recent speaking tour of the United States. Tariq, a native of Pakistan who lives in England, is a well known writer, intellectual [...]

Surprising Study On Terrorism: Al-Qaida Kills Eight Times More Muslims Than Non-Muslims Few would deny that Muslims too are victims of Islamist terror. But a new study by the Combating Terrorism Center in the US has shown that an overwhelming majority of al-Qaida victims are, in fact, co-religionists.

Interview with Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus: 'Everyone Should Have the Right to Credit' Microcredit loans have revolutionized the world of finance in developing nations. Now Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate behind the concept, wants to see similar programs in the industrialized world. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, he explains why Germany's poor should be given loans.

SPIEGEL Interview with Pakistan's Prime Minister: 'American Drone Attacks Are Counterproductive' In a SPIEGEL interview, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani talks about the fight against terrorism in his country, the future of Afghanistan and why US drone attacks do more harm than good.

Augesto Giacometi

Indian Legal Bottleneck, DERIVATIVE MARKET REFORM Pt I & II, Beijing broods over its arc of anxiety,Books of the decade: Your best books of 2005,

Indian Legal Bottleneck: Kasab's trial is into its eighth month. But in India's notoriously slow legal system, this is fast. A staggering backlog of civil and criminal cases clog India's courts. According to figures released by the Indian Supreme Court last year, India has a backlog of 29.2 million cases across hundreds of subordinate state-level courts, 21 high courts and the Supreme Court. Out of this number, over 25.4 million cases are pending in subordinate courts, 3.7 million in various high courts while the Supreme Court has 45,887 cases awaiting justice. According to a report by the Law Commission of India, India's population-to-judge ratio is one of the lowest in the world. While the United States and Britain have about 150 judges for every million of its population, India has only 10 judges for the same number.

Beijing broods over its arc of anxiety By Peter Lee However, active mischief by India inside Afghanistan is not needed to destabilize Pakistan. Merely prolonging the Western military effort in Afghanistan sustains the disastrously unfavorable configuration of forces destabilizing Pakistan, and is a geopolitical victory for India.
It was probably no coincidence that at the same time the Dalai Lama paid a high-profile visit to Tawang, one of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's favorite monasteries in Arunachal Pradesh, China found it convenient to invite influential Kashmir separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq - also a religious leader affiliated with the largest mosque in Kashmir - to visit Beijing on a trip.

Books of the decade: Your best books of 2005

Robert Fisk: "They shoot Russians," the young paratrooper told me. It was cold. We had come across his unit, the Soviet 105th Airborne Division, near Charikar, north of Kabul, and he was holding out a bandaged hand. Blood seeped through, staining the sleeve of his battledress. He was just a teenager with fair hair and blue eyes. Beside us a Soviet transport lorry, its rear section blown to pieces by a mine � yes, an "improvised explosive device", though we didn't call it that yet � lay upended in a ditch. In pain, the young man raised his hand to the mountain-tops where a Soviet helicopter was circling. Could I ever have imagined that Messers Bush and Blair would have landed us in the same sepulchre of armies almost three decades later? Or that a young black American president would do exactly what the Russians did all those years ago?

In a very strong year, my choices would include Murakami and Mantel along with Doctorow and Didion. How about you?

Johann Hari: How I wish that the global warming deniers were right - Imagine you are about to get on a plane with your family. A huge group of qualified airline mechanics approach you on the tarmac and explain they've studied the engine for many years and they're sure it will crash if you get on board. They show you their previous predictions of plane crashes, which have overwhelmingly been proven right. Then a group of vets, journalists, and plumbers tell they have looked at the diagrams and it's perfectly obvious to them the plane is safe and that airplane mechanics � all of them, everywhere � are scamming you. Would you get on the plane? That is our choice at Copenhagen.



DERIVATIVE MARKET REFORM, Part 2
The courageous Brooksley Born
By Henry CK Liu
This article concludes a two-part series.
Part 1: The folly of deregulation

Burns Road, Karachi, The Monster of Darfur, Nicholas Kristoff, A Cloud Still Hangs Over Bhopal, Reality Check

RebeccaHamilton: Hilal's name looms large on the list of perpetrators who’ve committed atrocities in Darfur since violence erupted there in 2003. At Khartoum's request, he organized the Janjaweed, predominantly Arab militias that have operated hand-in-glove with the Sudanese government to cleanse Darfur of its non-Arab population. Hilal, who is now almost 50 years old, is among those most responsible for the deaths of more than 200,000 people and the displacement of another 2.7 million. The U.S. government has sanctioned him, and the United Nations has issued a travel ban and asset freeze against him. In mid-2006, Hilal stopped giving English-language media interviews. This past August, however, he agreed to meet with me--three years and two months since he had last spent time with a Western journalist. Sheikh Musa, as Hilal is known by his Mahamid clan, said that he wanted to correct the “misperceptions” the world has about him.

If only Obama is listening, here is Nicholas Kristoff's variation of make love not war:

“To me, what was most concerning is that there was never any consultation with the Afghan shura, the tribal elders,” said Greg Mortenson, whose extraordinary work building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan was chronicled in “Three Cups of Tea” and his new book, “From Stones to Schools.” “It was all decided on the basis of congressmen and generals speaking up, with nobody consulting Afghan elders. One of the elders’ messages is we don’t need firepower, we need brainpower. They want schools, health facilities, but not necessarily more physical troops.” For the cost of deploying one soldier for one year, it is possible to build about 20 schools. Another program that is enjoying great success in undermining the Taliban is the National Solidarity Program, or N.S.P., which helps villages build projects that they choose — typically schools, clinics, irrigation projects, bridges. This is widely regarded as one of the most successful and least corrupt initiatives in Afghanistan. “It’s a terrific program,” said George Rupp, the president of the International Rescue Committee. “But it’s underfunded. And it takes very little: for the cost of one U.S. soldier for a year, you could have the N.S.P. in 20 more villages.”

A Cloud Still Hangs Over Bhopal - Union Carbide and Dow were allowed to get away with it because of the international legal structures that protect multinationals from liability. Union Carbide sold its Indian subsidiary and pulled out of India. Warren Anderson, the Union Carbide chief executive at the time of the gas leak, lives in luxurious exile in the Hamptons, even though there’s an international arrest warrant out for him for culpable homicide. The Indian government has yet to pursue an extradition request. Imagine if an Indian chief executive had jumped bail for causing an industrial disaster that killed tens of thousands of Americans. What are the chances he’d be sunning himself in Goa?

Swiss Muslims gain support from unexpected source -The head of the Conference of European Rabbis, which convened this week in Moscow, issued a statement criticizing the proposed ban, saying that Europe won't defeat extreme Islam by battling freedom of religion and knocking down mosque minarets in Switzerland. "Only through unrelenting support of moderates within the Muslim community and promoting interfaith dialogue can European governments defeat the fundamentalist extreme Islam," Rabbi Dunner said.

Eat, drink and remember Mr Burnes - If you cross the Fresco intersection to move towards M.A. Jinnah Road, you’ll see Lucky Chamber on your left and the Nizam Mansion on your right. Don’t go there, and get to the main Burnes Road in the direction that will lead you to Regal Chowk and you’ll come across a series of buildings dotted with restaurants and food stalls, the same area where an unmissable food centre exists. There you’ll see the Pak Mansion, but the more prominent structures are across the road with a bustling residential locality and historic, albeit cluttered and de-coloured edifices. There are Rahat and Frere Mansions; the latter springs Bartle Frere’s name to mind. It must have been a picturesque sight when it was first built, but looks terribly messy in 2009. There are halva poori wallahs, bakeries, cafés and what not girdling this piece of stonework. Add to it the typists or compositors ready to write an application for you for a paltry amount. With the advancement of information technology their business has dwindled, but they’re hanging in there. Every once a while there comes a student or job-seeker with a sheaf of documents in his hands to these men whose typing speed can match up with Brett Lee’s bowling pace. [thanks RJ]

Reality check from Paul Craig Roberts: The US invasion of Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with American national interests. It had to do with armaments profits and with eliminating an obstacle to Israeli territorial expansion. The cost of the war, aside from the $3 trillion, was over 4,000 dead Americans, over 30,000 wounded and maimed Americans, tens of thousands of broken American marriages and lost careers, one million dead Iraqis, four million displaced Iraqis, and a destroyed country. All of this was done for the profits of the military/security complex and to make paranoid Israel, armed with 200 nuclear weapons, feel “secure.”

The American people have no effect on anything. They can affect nothing. They have become irrelevant like Obama. And they will remain irrelevant as long as organized interest groups can purchase the US government.

Zafar Hilaly, Guess who walked away with nation’s 100 bn rupees? Shaheen Sehbai, Fasi Zaka,

Zafar Hilaly: Obama can beat up on the Taliban for a few more years and then offer some operational successes as a smoke screen to declare victory and withdraw. Alternatively, he may be able to kill or capture a high profile al Qaeda leader, perhaps even Osama and Al-Zawahari, if they are alive and in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and declare that the surge has been successful and the mission accomplished. This may earn Obama kudos with the American electorate but it will not change anything on the ground. There are Islamists and ultra-nationalist Muslims in every village in Afghanistan. Xenophobia existed in Afghanistan long before Bin Laden’s arrival (the Arabs of al Qaeda are pejoratively called ‘camels’ by the Taliban), and will continue much after the US’s departure.

Guess who walked away with nation’s 100 bn rupees? By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: In a country where over 40 per cent of the population is said to be languishing under the poverty line with families surviving on less than $2 a day, the shameful revelation of the filthy rich getting....


Shaheen Sehbai: The fact that the 007-Geneva operation ordered by Mr Zardari and conducted by an otherwise respected Wajid Shamsul Hasan has left the country with the thought that the gang sitting in Islamabad is on the run and trying to cover up its tracks, cannot be denied. The fact that the boxes of hard evidence of the Swiss money laundering cases collected in Geneva and airlifted to London the same day have disappeared and no one is ready to own them, despite mute claims by NAB, shows how scared the Zardari camp is fearing the fate which is in store. That these cases may be reopened is a high possibility.
I wonder if Anne Patterson is using the Bill Clinton defense, when he tried to wiggle out of confessing to an extra-marital affair by claiming that oral acts do not cover that definition. Is she denying Blackwater (which technically doesn't exist anymore), by evading responses on Xe? If that is the case, it is disingenuous and untrustworthy.

Fasi Zaka: Blackwater changed its name to Xe (which is short for Xenon, an inert element) to appear harmless in the wake of bad press around the world. Maybe they should have changed their name to Hydro, which would not refer to a neutral, water-like substance but hydrogen, the most inflammable of elements.

Edvard Munch

Obama's Misguided Speech, Jane Doodall on Chimpanzees,

Bill Moyers & Jane Goodall: What Chimps Reveal About Human Brutality, Violence, Compassion and Hope - A fascinating and wide-ranging discussion with Jane Goodall on what chimps tell us about human beings and what we must do to save these animals from extinction.

Obama�s Afghanistan Mis-Speech - If President Obama is the Muhammad Ali of political oratory, then his much-anticipated Afghan strategy speech was, at least to his admirers (even those from faraway places like Islamabad) as bitter as Ali�s 1971 loss to Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden. It was his first grand failure. In the past, Obama�s oratory skills have helped him do the things he was looking to get done (Reverend Wright, Election Night, healthcare). His effectiveness is borne of the clarity he creates and the trust he engenders.

Pro-Israel blogger breaks with right wing - Longtime pro-Israel blogger Charles Johnson of the popular Little Green Footballs site has "parted ways with the Right" and writes that he can be called an independent. In a post on his blog earlier this week, Johnson, a critic of radical Islam, wrote that among his reasons was "anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide." Other problems with the right, he said, was "support for anti-science bad craziness" and "hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)."

Obama's Misguided War Speech Shouldn't Be the Last Word on Afghanistan - By John Nichols, The Nation -Presidents are not supposed to begin and end the discussion about war. With both parties divided over Afghanistan, it's time for Congress to debate the Obama's war plan.

Reds, Menaced - MAURICE ISSERMAN Dissects the Collapse of The Soviet Empire

Afterwords LAURA FROST on the Novel and 9/11

Walking Eagle, The Groveling of Pakistani Elites, This I believe,

President BARACK OBAMA was invited to address a major gathering
of the American Indian Nation in upstate New York .

He spoke for almost an hour about his plans for increasing every Native American's present standard of living. He referred to his time as a U.S. Senator and how he had voted for every Native American issue that came to the floor of the Senate. Although President Obama was vague about the details of his plans, he seemed most enthusiastic and spoke eloquently about his ideas for helping his "red sisters and brothers."

At the conclusion of his speech, the Tribes presented Obama with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name, "Walking Eagle." The proud President then departed in his motorcade to a fundraiser, waving to the crowds. A news reporter later asked the group of Chiefs how they came to select the new name they had given to the President. They explained that "Walking Eagle" is the name given to a bird so full of shit it can no longer fly. [thanks SR]


Two excerpts from Thomas Friedman

1: The context within which people live their lives shapes everything — from their political outlook to their religious one. The reason there are so many frustrated and angry people in the Arab-Muslim world, lashing out first at their own governments and secondarily at us — and volunteering for “martyrdom” — is because of the context within which they live their lives. That was best summarized by the U.N.’s Arab Human Development reports as a context dominated by three deficits: a deficit of freedom, a deficit of education and a deficit of women’s empowerment. The reason India, with the world’s second-largest population of Muslims, has a thriving Muslim minority (albeit with grievances but with no prisoners in Guantánamo Bay) is because of the context of pluralism and democracy it has built at home.

2: To me, the most important reason for the Iraq war was never W.M.D. It was to see if we could partner with Iraqis to help them build something that does not exist in the modern Arab world: a state, a context, where the constituent communities — Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — write their own social contract for how to live together without an iron fist from above. Iraq has proved staggeringly expensive and hugely painful. The mistakes we made should humble anyone about nation-building in Afghanistan. It does me.

In a hard hitting piece M. Shahid Alam dissects:

Will the departure of Mr. Sethi and his distinguished colleagues make a difference? I doubt if the owners of DT will have difficulty finding their replacements, voices equally shrill in their advocacy of foreign powers. More than at any other time, growing numbers of Pakistanis have been grooming themselves for service to the Empire, as their predecessors once eagerly sought to serve the British Raj. This groveling by Pakistan’s elites will only change when the people act to change the incentives on offer to the servants of Empire. It will only change when the people of Pakistan can put these mercenaries in the dock, charge them for their crimes against the people and the state, and force them to disgorge their loot. [thanks AL]

The Palestinians who are being evicted from Sheikh Jarrah have lived in their homes there since at least 1948, and some have lived there much longer, living in the homes passed down for hundreds of years from their ancestors. In the last several years, Israeli settlers have repeatedly attacked the neighborhood, injuring residents, damaging property and eventually kicking Palestinians by force out of their homes, and then moving into those homes. Evicted Palestinians have tried to camp out in the street in front of their homes, and hold protest vigils in the street, but these have repeatedly been dismantled and broken up by Israeli authorities.

Hauling Away the Papers, Samson Simon Sharaf,

Hauling Away the Evidence: The mystery surrounding the 12 controversial cartons full of critical evidence against Asif Ali Zardari and the late Benazir Bhutto, deepened on Tuesday as the boxes landed in London but disappeared, raising fears that the evidence may be destroyed quickly if not taken over by a responsible government agency. Pakistan HC sources told The News in London that the boxes, which were removed in a clandestine operation from a Swiss lawyer’s office on Monday, had reached the posh Hampstead residence of Wajid Shamsul Hasan in the London area, although he officially denies any link with the operation. These sources told The News that the 12 cartons were transported on Flight LX 338 from Zurich (ZRH) to London (LHR) on Tuesday. The sources confirmed that the Pakistan HC staff received the cartons after the flight arrived at Heathrow at 7:15 pm but they never arrived at the HC offices.

SAMSON SIMON SHARAF: Those who ran the last lap sacrificed the most. They had faced the brunt of socio-economic injustices and struggled valiantly within their enclaves and ghettos for Pakistan. They migrated from far afar on carts, trains and foot. Very few would know that these hapless caravans also comprised Christians from as far away as South India and Delhi. Most as events proved tragically, left one ghetto, to create another. They still ask: "Has Pakistan come?"

Utagawa Kuniyoshi