Will Al Jazeera English Revolutionize America's TV News Landscape?

Will Al Jazeera English Revolutionize America's TV News Landscape?
Masood Haider - Have you asked a bakri? Perhaps the only thing worse than being an Ahmedi in modern-day Islamic Pakistan is to be a bakra, particularly the black variety.

Classics and Classism Zia Mohyeddin

I am frequently dubbed as a classicist. I don't mind this even though I know that the implication is that I belong to a breed, conservative in taste, thoroughly insensitive to all modern endeavours: art literature, architecture, and blind to the wonders of the computer age. It speaks volumes for the anti-intellect culture which has spread all around us that "Classics" is regarded as something old-fashioned, appreciated only by old fogies.

What is "Classics?" What is classicism? Some dictionaries would tell you that it pertains to ancient Greek and Latin literature and art; others define it as "simple, harmonious, well- proportioned." The Concise Oxford, while giving three or four meanings, still relates the terms to Greek or Latin art and culture. Mercifully, it also offers a simple definition: "of acknowledged excellence outstandingly important."

I would like to submit that any creative work of the past -- be it sculpture, painting, drama, architecture, poetry, history -- which stimulates your mind and makes you wonder about the depth of its imagination, is "Classics." (Needless to say that all things antique are not "Classics," just as "Classics" do not', necessarily, belong to an antique world).

Mirza Asadullah Ghalib.Talking About a Revolution (for a Digital Age)

With thanks to Francesca Orsini, Alok Rai and his family, and Fran Pritchett, we have a scan of the only photo portrait of Mirza Asadullah Ghalib.


Jyoti Malhotra: We're now part of the solution
Talking About a Revolution (for a Digital Age)
March of the Peacocks
The Pre-Postmodernist
A Radical Treasure

Pablo Picasso

10 Ways to Stop Corporate Dominance of Politics, Haiti earthquake: The Muslim response to Haiti

Obama Dominates at Republican Retreat
Why Daniel Ellsberg May Still Be "The Most Dangerous Man in America"
The Weird World of Occult America -- How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation
Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Alice Walker Reflect on the Death of Howard Zinn
Haiti earthquake: The Muslim response to Haiti
Terror comes at night in Afghanistan
Best European Fiction 2010 edited by Aleksandar Hemon
Dictator-lit: The poetry of Ayatollah Khomeini
Israel fast-tracking Indian immigrants to subvert settlement freeze
Cameras Roll As Obama Schools GOP
Poets take up their pens in aid of Haiti

President signs bill against harassment at workplaces,UN exposes myth of 'Quetta Shura'

President signs bill against harassment at workplaces

Why the Fetish About Footnotes?

Making Sense of Sound

UN exposes myth of 'Quetta Shura'

Paintings show ‘Constant Love in Caprice World’: Faiza’s insignia of emotions exhibited at Jharoka
Playing the Sindh card

Irfan Hussain- Buried in these charges of poor governance and corruption lie a number of excellent initiatives. The agreement over resource-sharing among the provinces was a major achievement. The decision to incorporate the northern areas into the mainstream political system was another. Reaching out to Baloch nationalists was an act of statesmanship no general could have been capable of. Unfortunately, none of these resonate very deeply among a public crushed by high prices and unemployment.

Book review: Nuclear Pakistan — setting the record straight, again —by Afrah Jamal

The Genesis of South Asian Nuclear Deterrence: Pakistan’s Perspective

By Naeem Salik Oxford University Press; Pp 350

Going nuclear is a lifestyle choice. For the original five, it was a vital symbol of power. For Pakistan, it is a necessary evil. With three nuclear powers in the region, Pakistan is the only one that gives the world sleepless nights. As their least favourite (aspiring) club member, Pakistan is used to being eyed with suspicion and treated with disdain. Naeem Salik believes that current debates on Pakistan’s nuclear stance are speculative at best and slanderous at worst.

Jacob Lawrence

Blackwater's Youngest Victim, Sunset at DawnNews

Blackwater's Youngest Victim - Jeremy Scahill

Ever since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the Pakistani establishment has been reluctant to speak out openly to the Indian media. In his first interview to an Indian television news channel since the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani spoke to CNN-IBN's deputy foreign affairs editor Suhasini Haidar in Islamabad on January XX. Here is the transcript of the interview:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's talk at the Jaipur Literature Festival shows how globalization is changing the debate.

Sunset at DawnNews
Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger dies
A Memory Of Howard
Lost Tribe On Fast Track To Israel
BOOKS: Salman Ahmad's "Rock & Roll Jihad" + webcast

Who is running the Indian government, the Shiv Sena or the Congress? How to publish your own book online – and make money

Who is running the Indian government, the Shiv Sena or the Congress?
Durrani warns of massive food crisis in Pakistan
Nadra designated as Asian leader
JD Salinger obituary
Authors' tributes: 'His great theme was the moral rootlessness of American life'
Howard Zinn's lesson to us all Victoria Brittain
How to publish your own book online – and make money
Pakistani Mobile Phones Improve Literacy via SMS Messaging
Apple iPad: what it doesn't have
How the Great Howard Zinn Made All Our Lives Better
Agents of Imperial Terror: Aggression and the Goldstone Report
The Liebarak: A Two-headed Monster
Siddiqui: Harper's human rights problem

Emil Nolde

Fort Williams boss wins the War of Generals in Indian Army, The Apple iPad: reactions

Fort Williams boss wins the War of Generals in Indian Army

RIP Howard Zinn. A collection of Zinn's pieces published on AlterNet may be found here: http://is.gd/7breM #p2
See pictures of the Apple iPad http://su.pr/1GZV98
Apple iPad: the wait is over – but is it future of media or oversized phone?
The Apple iPad: reactions
When Scholars Join The Slaughter
Wanted: Tony Blair For War Crimes. Arrest Him And Claim Your Reward
Revealed: See Who Was Paid Off In The AIG Bailout
The 6 Most Statistically Full Of Shit Professions
How To Install A Drip Irrigation System (VIDEO)
Goldsmith: why I changed my mind on Iraq
7 Questions for Robert Cohen

Nadeem exposes Imran Khan

A man with such a fantastic cricketing career, and an impressive record of philanthropy, a man who once seemed to possess all the right ingredients to become a truly enlightened and loved politician, has, unfortunately, landed on his face. He now sounds like an awkward cross between a freckled member of the Ku Klux Klan and a frustrated shrew who treats his country as a lowly damsel in distress who can only be saved by a fair prince like him, instead of those who come into power with the votes of the common, albeit dark Pakistanis.
Nadeem exposes Imran Khan

Aafia Siddiqui Trial Coverage,Women’s bills revisited, Sex and the city

Women’s bills revisited

Coal: a way out of energy crisis

UN removes curbs on five ex-Taliban leaders

Taliban unimpressed with United Nation’s gesture

Forbidden

Secrets behind closed doors

It is vitally important to foster "Aman ki Asha" (desire for peace), rather than "Jang ki Bhasha," the dialogue of war.

It is regrettable that all the world’s supposed best brains cannot comprehend the simple point that in Pakistan’s desire to see non-hostile borders with Afghanistan and India lies the key to building consensus on lasting peace for Afghanistan. Powerful world capitals continue to see this demand as a sinister plot to keep the Taliban in Afghanistan’s power play. It will be interesting to see whether the outcome of the London Conference would depart from this blinkered approach or not. Any bets Talat?

COMMENT: Sex and the city —Miranda Husain

Nothing is as fragile as the male ego and no one more bitter than a man scorned; such cads become genuinely and surprisingly affronted when a woman tries to steer the banter back to the path of most resistance

Aafia Siddiqui Trial Coverage

Day One http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=30901
Day Two http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=30931
Day Three http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=30933our
Day Four http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=30942
Day Five http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=30960
Day Six http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=30967

Gustave Caillebotte

It's Not Cricket - Saba Naqvi

Saba Naqvi writes:

The point I am making is that we may have been one big country before the Partition but today India and Pakistan are very different entities. And it’s not just the geo-political mess that Pakistan is or the failure of democracy in that country. The ethnic stock, social norms, tribal values (and lately religious extremism) make Pakistan a wild west that is not friendly to women except the very well made up and fashionable ladies one meets in the metros. Pakistan certainly has huge problems. But some Pakistanis have a hard time dealing with the reality that their country is a mess.

HN thanks for the link: follow the comments too.

Free Nazia Quazi,

Free Nazia Quazi http://bit.ly/arfh0e
wise counsel - He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it.http://bit.ly/8X32jr

I am launching a website www.arrestblair.org ,

Christopher Reid's quiet Costa triumph
money can't buy me....love...(or Talibans) http://bit.ly/9WkGe2
legality of drone attacks http://bit.ly/a6Q23m
Parliamentarians know that lack of education, coupled with the obscurantism ofcontemporary Sufism, sustains their power.http://bit.ly/9hKs5e
what is good for the goose is good for the ganderhttp://bit.ly/aj6yM8
I am launching a website –www.arrestblair.org http://bit.ly/8FKtR7http://bit.ly/deBCd3
"They also do not see him lasting beyond March." http://bit.ly/axcDDA

Vincent Van Gogh

A portrait of a Karachi neighborhood - Maniza Naqvi - Imagining Lyari, Could America take to cricket?

A portrait of a Karachi neighborhood - Maniza Naqvi - Imagining Lyari http://bit.ly/7eHEhO

Helping strangers, learning other lives and escaping escapism: a conversation with filmmaker Ramin Bahrani

Pakistan's Main Stock Index Poised for Rise: Technical Analysis

Drone surge: Today, tomorrow and 2047

Stiglitz pinpoints 'moral' core of crisis

Could America take to cricket?

PAKISTAN: Home-Based Workers Struggle to Climb Out of Poverty

Fixing Pakistan's Election Commission, Riz Khan Interviews Amy Goodman

Religion is no longer the decisive or dominant factor in growing secular and pluralistic global trends.
Fixing Pakistan's Election Commission
It is ironic that the West is keen to promote reconciliation and political dialogue with the Afghan Taliban while insisting on the military defeat of the Pakistani Taliban.
We Send Doctors, Not Soldiers
Is Israel Preparing To Attack Lebanon?
The Power and Necessity of Dissent
Riz Khan Interviews Amy Goodman
Are Bing and WolframAlpha catching up with Google in search engine battle?

Pablo Picasso

Irshad Ahmed Haqqani passes away, TV anchors are always looking for some big fish to be trapped, Talat Masood

TV anchors are always looking for some big fish to be trapped.

PMO red faced as Govt ad projects Pakistan ex-air chief

Good intelligence will follow, not precede the trust that will come from peace talkshttp://bit.ly/5dOhiT

The Punjab Health Care Bill does not define what a hospital should be.

How quickly we descend to the level of juvenileS (sic) in our mutual interactionhttp://bit.ly/4WASmR

from la la land: ‘Clash between institutions wishful thinking’http://bit.ly/8pY5My

Irshad Ahmed Haqqani passes away

What happened to hathiar humara zaiwar hay? ANP for making city weapon-free

Apart from other factors there has to be a realisation that the nature of warfare itself has been changing fundamentally, especially in the last two decades. Military power is only effective if other elements of national power are balanced and mutually supportive, and institutions of the state do not have an antagonistic relationship. We have a classic example of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Iraq that collapsed from within or were unable to face the enemy effectively due to internal loss of vigour. In our case, when the military is fighting an insurgency and relations with India are tense, the support of people is crucial. This only comes if the state- society and army- civil relations are good and there is mutual respect.

Salvador Dali

Nawwab and I: Invisible Chastity Belts

credit


N: You should go into manufacturing.
t: Me? Manufacturing?
N: Well you have friends who can put this together. You don't have to mop the floors. Just put up some seed money, gather your friends and do a start-up and it will take off.
t: Arrggh! This is not another hare brained Syedtester? I suppose you have a product in mind?
N: Chastity belts.
t: Hmmmm...what have you been sniffing lately? And have you been inhaling it too?
N: Woof woof! Just because I am a dog ...
t: It has nothing to do with hydrants Nawwab!
N: Cheap shot.
t: OK. Apologies. But chastity belts are so passe.
N: You don't know.
t: The ultra orthodox use it...er thrust it....er imprison their women in it?
N: And Farhat Hashmi clones also encourage women to embrace it.
t: Embrace? How embarrassing.
N: Regardless of your revulsion there is money to be made here.
t: I am allergic to it.
N: Yes you are, but you use it. And now there is a niche.
t: Alright, you would not let me return to the Redskins unless I hear you out.
N: What is it with you and perennial losers? Leafs, Jays, Redskins?
t: Who mentioned cheap shots earlier?
N: Look, be serious. There is a huge market for Chastity belts.
t: Yeah, yeah BDSMs.
N: No, it is not about tops and bottoms. These are aimed at real people, orthodox, controlling who use it almost daily.
t: Hey, Nawwab you are serious about this.
N: Woof woof! In the wake of the CrotchBomber, airport security has been further tightened.
t: That delusional idiot! Now they would scan the whole body.
N:That is my point. Old chastity belts would show up on the body scanners.
t: And so you want me to manufacture invisible chastity belts?
N: Now you are barking... er talking.
t: And how would they be invisible?
N: Heard of stealth bombers? Modify the same alloys to escape body scanner detection. There, I gave this away.
t: You are incredible, Nawwab.
N: And with good marketing campaign you can sell it to both men and women.
t: Men also?
N: Why not? Don't they have....
t: OK OK no need to explain this further...some grown up children also read this.
N: And there is more. Lil S says that once you develop this alloy that would not be detected by the body scanners, you can branch into coated nipple piercings.
t: You are on a roll Nawwab.
N: Woof woof, and you can also coat tampons.
t: Lil S? Do I know her?
N: How do you know she is a her?
t: I learn from you O Nawwab!

USA v Aafia Siddiqui, day 3, Mohammed Hanif, Dawn(Sizing)News,

Did you drop your raw steak on the floor? Haven't we all? Not to worry, there's finally have a complex, detailed guide that lets you know if it's still okay to eat. This flowchart covers it all. Because sometimes the "5 Second Rule" does not apply. (via Flowing Data)

Petra's Aafia Siddiqui Trial Day Three

Aafia Siddiqui Trial Day Two

Aafia Siddiqui Trial Day One

The Dumb Decade - Mohammed Hanif

Chetan Bhagat: the paperback king of India Books

Dawn(Sizing)News

anyone has seen this ad? http://bit.ly/5YkfBN

Robert Fisk: The tree-lined bunkers that could change the face of the Middle East

orwell, lit. scouts, jaded hitchens and vidal,

orwell still influences http://bit.ly/88Eq8Z

Services for Western Civilization and Literature will be held Friday at the Chicago Public Library http://bit.ly/7aMtms

Inside the Secret World of Literary Scouts

‘The real danger is that al Qaeda and the Neo-Taliban will drag the United States into regional war’ Syed Saleem Shahzad

The Distant Executioner

battle of tired diatribes - who is more jaded hitchens or vidal? http://bit.ly/6HqqTZ

Single realities the world simpler. But as al-Tabari knew, multiple realities are what make it human. http://bit.ly/7bwbz0 less than a minute ago from TweetDeck

World" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/world/asia/22cricket.html" target=_blank>Cricket Team Snub Reeks of Politics to Pakistanis

He almost lost her, the chose to hide,

No Blackwater in Pakistan, says Malik he is right, it is Xe now

He almost lost her. http://bit.ly/5jPW8I

hey have chosen to hide

Remember, we are under a written Constitution and the Constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is. true - but the parliamentaians make the law, not the SC.

Lessons of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

Pablo Picasso

The Annual of Urdu Studies Could Use Some Help

Q. You are the editor of a very impressive journal, The Annual of Urdu Studies. How did you get involved in this work? Do you have a large readership for this publication?

A. C.M. Naim of the Chicago University started it in 1980. Over the next 10 years he produced 7 issues and then gave up. I waited 3 years for someone else to take it over. When no one did, I jumped in. We needed a journal of this sort, the only one of its kind anywhere in the world. I could have started a new one, but it made more sense to revive what had once existed. Our basic problem is funding. We were lucky to get some support from the South Asia Center in the initial period and later from the University. When the University’s fiscal problems forced it to withdraw its support, the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) luckily rescued us. Now it too has had to withdraw its full support. After June 2010 we are on our own, which means that we cease publication.

Our immediate problem is to raise some $7000 to pay the three-month half-time salary of the assistant editor so we can get the next issue, our 25th, out around September 2010. After that I don’t know. So far the Urdu community in the U.S. has helped us very little. Maybe they don’t know we exist. Perhaps you could put a notice in your online publication to let them know that we desperately need money, that keeping alive the only journal that deals with Urdu humanities is an imperative and the common responsibility of those in the Urdu community who are well placed in life to spare a little. Beyond 2010, we need close to $23,000 a year to retain a half-time assistant editor. The rest of the expenses we can cover from the small grant of $4000 the AIPS has offered to give us, and from the sales of the journal, and $1000 which I’m willing to contribute from my own pocket.

Do we have a large readership? I should think so, but not a large number of paid subscribers. Very few individuals and institutions buy it. Part of the reason for this deplorable condition is that in 2001 I put the journal online for free. Several thousand people a month use it there. So they don’t feel the need to buy it, or perhaps in many parts of the world they don’t have the resources to buy it even if they might like to. Shamefully, some university libraries in the U.S. and Europe have now also canceled their subscriptions because it is available online for free. Do they not realize this will snuff out the journal’s life? I had originally put it online for the sake of our South Asian readers who cannot afford to buy it.

If we cease publishing the print edition, the web edition will also cease to exist. Our editorial expenses are the same, whether it is print or web or both.

Coming up with $23,000 a year is a big hurdle for any one individual, but if you think of all those hundreds of prosperous doctors and businessmen in our community it isn’t an astronomical sum. If each gave only a small portion of it, we could easily reach our goal. So please do anything you can on behalf of the Annual.

Muhammad Umar Memon

Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit

---

Stories from Pakistan about living upstairs, downstairs and everywhere in between
More here. And here's a nice video of Daniel Mueenuddin and Mohsin Hamid from the Asia Society:
The Supreme Court Just Handed Anyone, Including bin Laden or the Chinese Govt., Control of Our Democracy
Robert Gates Confirms What U.S. Government Has Denied for Months: Blackwater Is in Pakistan
Israeli Military Being Celebrated For Work In Haiti, But What About The Suffering in Gaza?
Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit
The Bush-Packed Supreme Court Thinks Corporations Are People Too
Terrorism: Technology is not the problem, human relations are
Iranian elephant in the Iraqi room
Martin Amis on writing Time's Arrow
he is O'bama not O'Moses ... he cannot part....http://bit.ly/7tUFii
Canadians raise $9.4M in Canada For Haiti telethon

Article 62(zzz), you rock - gul and anjum

Milestones in a Political Journey
By M Asghar Khan Dost Publications; Pp 242
The title is misleading. Unless the definition of milestones has changed — the events depicted here are the very antithesis of milestones. Maelstroms would have been a more apt description. When things went south during Asghar Khan’s political struggle, which they did a lot while operating under the destructive influence of dictatorship in the absence of political capital, a free press and/or leverage, speech making and letter writing were the two options left to peace-loving activists.

you rock gul: In this case, this committee of wise men has further work to do. They might want to consider some Islamic additions to Article 62 (since deletions are not possible), which pertain to qualifications for members of the National Assembly:

62 (i): he is not a hypocrite;

62(j): he is not ignorant;

62(k): he eats with his right hand;62(l): he washes with his left hand;

62(m): he does not back-bite;

62(n): he can demonstrate his belief in jinns;

62(o): he is afraid only of Allah, and plugs his ears at the sound of music;

62(p): he has always knocked before entering another’s home;

62(q): he holds current certification on regular alms giving;

62(r): he has never hidden the truth;

62 (s): he does not indulge in pleasure and enjoyment of life to forget his duty to Allah;

62 (t): he does not believe or repeat rumours against chaste believing women;

62(u): he is neither extravagant nor parsimonious;

62(v): he eats of the good things, but not inordinately (over-eating); and

62 (w): he is moderate in his volume of voice (the most hateful of voices is the braying of asses).

file this under hahaha: India keen to normalise relations with Pak: Krishna
is rehman malik resigning? Blackwater operatives training Pakistanis: NWFP minister
pakistan should ask for the ret colonel: Indian government pays compensation to Pakistani
people of the book: irony - An illiterate nation
What the Taliban want your land, your money, your wives
after failue with elected official Gates strives to build trust with Pakistan military
bad news for water-rangersHub Dam reserves to last till September
you said it anjum: Aitzaz Ahsan, Hamid Khan, Ali Ahmad Kurd, Tariq Mahmud, and Athar Minallah – our real heroes are back, but with dissenting views. How sad!

analysis: A judgemental opinion and some other issues —Farhat Taj In my view, it would be appropriate to make workable plans in consultation with the lashkars that would minimise the possibility of warlordism and maximise the capacity of the lashkars for protection of life. But for that to happen, some people will have to come out of the safety of foreign lands and private security guards and reach out to the lashkar villages. Is there anyone to do so among the protected ones? The lashkar people, at least those whom I interviewed, are willing to cooperate with any fellow Pakistani to facilitate their local anti-Taliban resistance within the contours of the law till the time the state effectively provides security. It was in this context that I requested the diaspora to help. It is not about just donating money. It is about making plans for a transparent use of the donations. Some may say this is too much to expect from the diaspora. If so, I would request them to refrain from tarnishing the reputation of the lashkars through judgemental opinions. If you cannot facilitate their harsh struggle, please do not make it even harsher through one-sided assumptions

Alex Katz

The Enquirer Makes a Bid for a Pulitzer, Pakistan armed forces 'tried to oust President'7 Simple Ways to Save Money on Technology You Use Every Day

The Enquirer Makes a Bid for a Pulitzer

Why Haiti Has Never Been Allowed To Prosper

Politics and the courts in Pakistan: In disrepute

The war in Afghanistan: Bombs and baksheesh

Pakistan armed forces 'tried to oust President'

Is Monet about to become the Panthéon's first famous artist?

Straw: Regime change in Iraq was off the agenda

Straw: I could have stopped invasion

YouTube seals IPL deal to show live cricket online

7 Simple Ways to Save Money on Technology You Use Every Day

Ideological indigestion,

Pakistan armed forces 'tried to oust President'
Bill against harassment of women approved by NA
Ideological indigestion
you want me? Come and get me.http://bit.ly/80OK00
Amitav Kumar interview
state terror proceeds by making torture justifiable and routine.http://bit.ly/6T9sNl

George Grosz

Dark Revelations in the Bagram Prisoner List, McChrystal's plan takes a Taliban hit,

By Paul Szep

Is Glenn Beck Just Paranoid, or Is Sarah Palin Really Trying to Steal His Show?

Dark Revelations in the Bagram Prisoner List

Murders at Guantánamo: Scott Horton of Harper’s Exposes the Truth about the 2006 “Suicides”

McChrystal's plan takes a Taliban hit

Robert B Parker obituary

The NYT Will Charge Online

Santana: Don't entertain Israeli apartheid!

YouTube Movie Rental Feature Debuts

Pablo Picasso

Harrowing New Report Exposes Chilling Truth Behind So-Called "Suicides" at Guantanamo

Surprise, Surprise! More Privacy Abuses Under Bush Revealed
Bill Moyers & Thomas Frank: How America's Demented Politics Let the GOP Off the Hook for Their Giant Mess
Harrowing New Report Exposes Chilling Truth Behind So-Called "Suicides" at Guantanamo
Can Apple's tablet do it again?
Betweenland I and X by Philip Gross
Toronto 18 informant asked RCMP for $15M
6 Rulers Who Abused Their Power In Hilariously Insane Ways
How To Hide From Google: Hacker Moxie Marlinspike's New Tool
Swiss Bank Whistleblower Speaks Out On Offshore Tax Havens
Akhtar Badshah: Devastation and Inspiration in Haiti
Matt Taibbi Translates David Brooks: 'Haitians Are A Bunch Of Lazy N***ers'
INDIA/PAKISTAN: Reduced Himalayan Snowfall Could Spark Water War
SEVEN-WONDERS PICTURES: Natural-World Finalists Named
World" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/world/middleeast/19briefs-Gazabrf.html" target=_blank>World Briefing Middle East: Gaza: Palestinians Push Hamas for Inquiry Over War Crimes Against Israel
World" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/world/middleeast/19syria.html" target=_blank>Deir Mar Mousa Journal: Modern-Day Pilgrims Find Interfaith Bond in Ancient Syrian Monastery
Learn the Secrets to Low-Budget, High-Creativity Filmmaking
YouTube's Top 10 Launches of 2009

Tragic path ahead, The problem is in Islamabad, not in Washington

Pakistan today is literally and figuratively a country that has strapped an explosive suicide vest to itself. The embrace of feudal hierarchies that perpetually ply their own interests before the rest of the nation, the failure to tax the richest in the country, the failure to curtail population growth with aggressive policies and the failure to rein in spending in the face of ever-rising debts create an explosive vest that threatens to destroy all within it.

The problem is in Islamabad, not in Washington.http://bit.ly/5RoCy7

Supreme Court says parliament cannot step on judiciary this violates and contradicts the supremacy of parliament (people's will)
temporal3

strong are the arguments in favour of the hypothesis that Osama bin Laden is dead http://bit.ly/57jv5A

No law could be made which perpetuated corruption: SC, Why is the return of Justice Ramday causing such anguish among the punditocracy?

No law could be made which perpetuated corruption: SC
we seem so preoccupied by our perpetual infighting that we have forgotten there is a larger world out there.

Cases of Violence Against Women (Jan. 2000-Dec. 2009)

Why is the return of Justice Ramday causing such anguish among the punditocracy?

COMMENT: Ab initio —Munir Attaullah

Legal decisions that have retrospective effect (especially if a substantial period of time has elapsed) are given only very exceptionally. The reason is obvious. Dealing adequately with the complications that are likely to arise as a result requires much legal hair splitting and squaring of circles

This ab initio business has got me beat.
Asleep I may have been but — mutatis mutandis, allowing for the fact that I am no judge or legal eagle — in my dreams at least I am free to take suo motu notice of any situation that ipso facto would attract a writ of quo warranto, and to then speculate ex post facto (relying on the legal maxim, res ipsa loquitur) whether, prima facie, there is a powerful ab initio case for analysing the present situation (without imputing any mala fide intent to anyone) in light of the principle qui facit per alium facit per se.

Irving Amen

Bonus Season at the IMF, Justice delayed, justice denied, Let's hear it for Rumi | Andrew Brown

Bonus Season at the IMF - The largest drain on Pakistan’s resources is the financing of its debts. The second-largest is the financing of its military. The third-largest is the running of government.

Getting to the Bottom of Why "They" Want to Hurt Us Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas broke through the terrorism boilerplate by asking "why."

Justice delayed, justice denied Well over a month after the package’s announcement, the province’s most sensitive issue of missing persons and the declaration of amnesty in politically motivated (largely treason) cases require proper, yet swift, handling. Many wonder whether the rule of law will eventually overcome the impression of, as Justice Raja Fayyaz put it, a “Gestapo-like reign of terror.”

The teacher who inspired me

Let's hear it for Rumi Andrew Brown

Rumi's Masnavi, part 8: Echoes of celestial music Franklin Lewis

Andy Borowitz: Satan Discloses Ten-Year Deal With Jeff Zucker

A P P E A L Dear Readers and Friends of The Annual of Urdu Studies (AUS), As you know, the AUS is not a profit-making enterprise and it has managed to stay alive largely thanks to the hard work of its two-person, part-time staff and to the financial support of the Center for South Asia, the Graduate School, and the College of Letters and Science of the University of Wisconsin, and, mainly, the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS), which has heroically assumed the responsibility to pay the half-time salary of the Assistant Editor Jane Shum, without whose exemplary service the AUS would have folded a long time ago. Sadly, the AIPS has decided it must curtail drastically its funding to $4000 a year, effective 1 July 2010. This amount is too small to keep the AUS alive. We immediately need to raise $7000 to even publish the next issue, our 25th. What will happen next depends on whether all of you in the Urdu community at large are willing to assume responsibility for the dissemination of knowledge regarding Urdu humanities. A sum of about $23,000 for the Assistant Editor’s half-time yearly salary/benefits will be needed to keep the AUS alive. Please take a moment and think seriously about whether this journal, the only one of its kind in the West, merits being kept alive. If you think it has performed a valuable service to the scholarly world and the Urdu community, please send a contribution payable to: University of Wisconsin Foundation with "Annual of Urdu Studies/12546746" in the memo line. Send checks directly to: UW Foundation U.S. Bank Lockbox P.O. Box 78807 Milwaukee, WI 53278-0807 Online gifts can be made at www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu/giving Please select "Other" from the Designation drop down menu and type "Annual of Urdu Studies/12546746" in the free text box. PLEASE NOTE: YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE

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Downhill for Pakistan?

Downhill for Pakistan? Pakistan’s survival as a viable state, though, depends on how the current conjuncture is negotiated: whether the 17th Amendment is rescinded; the courts are respected and the culpable and the corrupt are prosecuted; the problem of social neglect and public disservice is tackled; and that someone among the rulers finally stands up to the US rather than prostrating before its imperial diktats.

This action created an unprecedented example where selections made by the public service commission through a transparent selection process were declared null and void in favour of a system based purely on favouritism and nepotism.

The poison has spread, not waned. http://bit.ly/7PjNGo
why does it take a minute to say hello and forever to say goodbye. http://bit.ly/6C2I0y
Pakistan is the gift that keeps giving. http://bit.ly/87mA9z
The buck stops with Shahbaz Sharif
A chronology of constitutional crises

Hananiah Harari

What would India do if a million Pakistanis reached the Wagah border, Google Search on Crisis Pakistan

Our fractured planet's faults

My St Lucia: poet Derek Walcott

Murray Fromson: Cuba's Rescue Effort in Haiti

What would India do if a million Pakistanis reached the Wagah border http://bit.ly/8cPWnf

Google Search on Crisis Pakistan

The Agronomist

Avatar wins drama honour at Golden Globes

report and rebuttal

The US Army is training a crack unit to seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants, possibly from inside the country’s security apparatus, get their hands on a nuclear device or materials that could make one.

Pakistan on Sunday strongly rejected a report of Christina Lamb in the Sunday Times titled “Elite US troops ready to combat Pakistani nuclear hijacks” and termed it rubbish and figment of the imagination of the reporter.

Gustav Klimit

Author has deep roots in Pakistan - and Elroy, Putting out a fire with gasoline

“But, Babboo, true or false, the fact is we can’t live without newspapers. We are not only enlightened people but we also believe in enlightened moderation.” – Photo by AP.

Author has deep roots in Pakistan - and Elroy

Only in academia?

Putting out a fire with gasoline

Smile now! Malik warns Hakeemullah of dire consequences

Rallying the diaspora —Dr Mohammad Taqi

Painting the current war as just the Pashtuns’ war might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It compartmentalises and isolates the Pashtuns even from their direct neighbours in Peshawar, Kohat and DI Khan. It is our war — of the Pashtuns, Hindko and Farsi speakers of Peshawar, Hazara-wals, Chitralis, the Shiite of Kurram and Barelvis of Swat. It is as much a Punjabi, Baloch or a Sindhi war

The army and the people —Dr Mubashir Hasan

The Pakistan Army may train the Rangers, the Frontier Constabulary (FC) or other paramilitary units but should not lend officers from its permanent cadre to serve in the paramilitary units, as it amounts to direct confrontation involving arrests and opening fire on the people

In Conversation with H. M. Naqvi

In Conversation with H. M. Naqvi - “We’d become Japs, Jews, Niggers. We weren’t before. We fancied ourselves boulevardiers, raconteurs, renaissance men, AC, Jimbo, and me. We were mostly self-invented and self-made and certain we had our fingers on the pulse of the great global dialectic.” So begins H. M. Naqvi’s novel Home Boy (Shaye Areheart, 2009)

So Jamaat (read islam) is also injurious to Cricket :) http://bit.ly/6KZp9k


Robert Fisk’s World: The stakes get higher as Arab princes try to outdo each other

Execution of Lady Jane Grey

Why a Burger Should Cost $200, Muslim Prostitute Tells Allah Poverty Left Her No Choice,

Asim Butt [BBC photo

Asim Butt. Artist. Activist. Rebel. Karachi lover. Peace lover. Asimicus. Saw him last two days ago heading home, he was waiting at a bus stop, we exchanged delighted hellos, I offered him a ride. “It’s all great,” he said with a big smile, gave an “all’s well” thumbs up. Funeral today 4 pm. Why? - Beena Sarwar

Why a Burger Should Cost $200
A fight against the odds
BOOK REVIEW : She had a dream
Muslim Prostitute Tells Allah Poverty Left Her No Choice
to feed or to teach them how to fish so they can feed themselves? http://bit.ly/5elIHC
Bankers Without a Clue
A New Dawn, Again: a tale of Abbas brothers?
Accidentally discovered catalyst strips CO2 from air

If MLK were around, Irate Holbroooke, Jadoogar of Jeddah

If MLK Were Around, He Wouldn't Care About Racial Brushfires in the Media -- He'd Be Talking About Poverty
the politicians reflect the people's opinions mr holbrooke: please take this message back. http://bit.ly/5it6oY
In Karachi, on the other hand, there is not a single bicycle path. http://bit.ly/7B6JMu
a one-two punch by the usual suspects against zardari - hamid mir http://bit.ly/6HYUNV ansar abbasi http://bit.ly/69CgRT
the jadoogar of jeddah as curmudgeon cowasjee calls him is back in http://bit.ly/8pAYku


Flight of the Falcon: Story of a Fighter Pilot
By S Sajad Haider Vanguard Books; Pp 422

Sajad Haider’s name made headlines, both in war and peace. The former remains his legacy, faithfully revisited every September. The latter became a fleeting moment in history, which no one talks about. This story would be incomplete without either, its shock and awe value lessened considerably. But when Haider’s autobiography, Flight of the Falcon, sets out to demolish the myths of the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971, several other fine illusions become collateral damage in the process.

Both the Pakhtun and Punjabi IDPs have requested the government to either offer them material help in their struggle for survival or restore the writ of the government in Parachinar so that they can go back

Moreover, through this column I would also like to challenge the international ‘scholars’ of the Pakhtun tribal culture who circulate around the ‘pedantic’ notion that whatever happened in Kurram agency is ‘tribalism’ rather than sectarianism, i.e. the Pakhtun tribal culture is the root cause of the massacre of the Shias and Sunnis in the area rather than the extreme versions of Sunni and Shia Islam, financed by the Arabs and Iranians, executed through the Punjab-based sectarian gangs and imposed on the helpless people of Kurram agency. I challenge them to elaborate how their ‘scholarly’ opinion explains the tragedy of the Punjabis in Parachinar! The Punjabis did not belong to any of the local tribes. They did not take sides with any of the tribes. They themselves admit they never felt threatened during the tribal clashes in the past but in November 2007 they were targeted just because they are Sunnis. They say they suffered because of sectarianism rather than tribalism; tribalism, they say, has always protected them.