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.