Three Cups of Tea in Perspective, Mehreen Bokhari, juta, lathi and thappar.

Three Cups of Tea in Perspective - Rafia Zakaria Yet to consider Mortenson’s story of initiative and resolve as solely a project to redeem Pakistan in the eyes of the West would be an error... enterprising NGOs that have built schools in rural Sindh and Punjab have failed to catch the international imagination with the level of intensity garnered by Mortenson’s project....Yet it is this last facet of Mortensen’s book that exposes the danger in elevating it to a panacea for all the ills that plague Pakistan. Simply put, while education is one of Pakistan’s needs and Greg Mortenson’s efforts are laudable, they do not present a thorough investigation into Pakistan’s structural problems and should not be taken as a stand-in for a deeper understanding of the country. In addition, there are Pakistanis such as Abdul Sattar Edhi who do not have Mortenson’s international fame but who have, with even fewer resources, managed to deliver their communities from poverty and build schools or small industries without the intervention of a foreign saviour.

CARTE BLANCHE: Pakistan’s new national game —Mehmal Sarfraz

The Ministry of Sports has passed a decree that in view of the current sports crisis, it has been decided that to boost the morale of the general public we should have something that we excel in as our national game

Mehreen Bokhari: As for Punjab, a little sneak-peak into its budget expenditure will answer whatever questions might be arising in our minds. Punjab’s development expenditure is heavily concentrated on Lahore at Rs 7,000 per capita. Compared to this, the most poverty-stricken and thus vulnerable areas of south Punjab are allotted less than Rs 400 per capita.

And Rauf Klasra writes "Former president Pervez Musharraf used the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to get Rs 55 billion contracts without tenders only to distribute them among those private companies and contractors where his relatives and friends were working to help them mint money through such secret deals." without dropping a single name!

A letter and a prayer

Israel recruits 'army of bloggers' to combat anti-Zionist Web sites [thanks RZ]

juta, lathi and thappar.