Reflections

Wow ! Just saw the 2nd last episode of the final season. This has got to be one of the most brilliant television series ever. Distinctly remember that scene in the first season with the chemistry professor Mr White saying to his students, "Chemistry: it is the study of change…It is growth, then decay, then transformation.” And thats the word that sums up this series:  transformation. Transformation of character ! “My wife is seven months pregnant with a baby we didn’t intend,” Walt explained in Season 2. “My 15-year-old son has cerebral palsy. I am an extremely overqualified high school chemistry teacher. When I can work, I make 43,700 dollars per year. I have watched all of my colleagues and friends surpass me in every way imaginable. And within 18 months, I will be dead. ” From being that loser of a chemistry teacher, who gets humiliated by his boss at what is his second job at a car wash, to becoming the methamphetamine kingpin of Uni...

Its so fascinating looking at the american economy bouncing back. It was all but done with in 2009. The subprime crisis had prompted everyone to think that the age of US led capitalism is over and the age of state capitalism is here (with state owned firms such as Petrobras, Gazprom, China Mobile, ICBC and even Emirates airlines growing the fatest). There was such intense opposition to the state bailing out the ailing automobile and financial firms with the popular slogan "private profits and public losses". Quarter after quarter unemployment data kept getting worse. But here we are again. US growth seems to have stabilised at 2% and unemployment at 7% is on a downward trend. Its really a matter of a few months when the FED would start sucking out excess money from the US economy (by stopping buying treasury bonds) the anticipation of which has already started strenthening the dollar and shaking emerging economies such as India and Turkey which had been benefiting from the i...

Dear Mr. Prime Minister Being at the helm of affairs of a country such as Pakistan will often put you under criticism for various things. However, I’d like to point out one aspect of our country which you can proudly point out in most forums. I realized this when my cooks husband had an accident and suffered multiple fractures in both legs around 2 weeks back. Incapable of affording treatment and unable to get it from any government institution, he is living a limp and painful life. It just made me realize that if there is anything such as a true capitalist state, its Pakistan ! This is a country where you are COMPLETELY on your own and where there is absolutely no government intervention in your life. If you dont somehow rigor it out and make a money, rest assured you WILL die of hunger. People will bicker about how pathetic the tax to gdp ratio of the country is, but no one really pays taxes. And in line with the true spirit of capitalism, the vanishing communal values and gro...

Just watched the Adnan Rashid Bannu jailbreak video and dont know whether to be in awe of TTP audacity in how they executed this successfully or whether to deride the gross ineptitude of our police and millitary to have let such a thing happen. They knew how important and high profiled the Talibans commanders they had in custody were and to have anyone other than the best guarding this prison was nothing but stupid. I know that the TTP fighters under the spell of their ideology are prepared to give their lives when planning such an operation but then the security forces should be capable of accepting these lives. If someone tells me that our millitary cannot fend off a couple hundred fighters having just AK 47s, rocket launchers and grenades (even mqm activists have this kind of weaponry !), id be very very concerned about our our frontiers that they are expected to protect. Its just poor management and bad planning that has allowed the 2 Kandahar prison breaks, the Bannu prison break ...

My first elections and it got me thinking critically of democracy. Pretty much like how one questions one's faith from time to time. And it wasnt just me who voted for the first time. So many others expressed their reservations about the process of election and how susceptible it is to influence. But the bigger reservation was on the system itself. Democracy! Rule by the people, of the people, for the people. But what if the people are an uneducated lot. And what if these illiterate people really dont know as to what it is that will make their lives better other than guarantee of continued supply of food. What if this unaware lot has accepted their state as fate. What if they just want status quo and they are so hopeless and disillusioned that they dont expect and want change. Would such a nation have the judgement to choose the people who would be actually best for them? Plato answered the above question in the negative. According to him, "true democracy is the right to...

This has been the first time i have closely observed the electoral process and i cant help marvelling at how smart MQM as a political party is. As a colleague remarked once, MQM has been able to do what Zionists have been able to do in Israel. Just like through decades of lobbying and campaigning, the Zionists have been able to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, MQM has been able to label anyone who is anti- MQM as being anti-urdu speaking. To be compared with the conspiratorious Zionists is actually a complement here and during 2013 elections, some of the moves of MQM has really left an impression on me. Another extension of this strategy has been the keeping of media and "anchor persons" constantly under pressure by complaining of their bias against MQM. For starters, the way they rigged the Karachi elections on May 11 is quite amazing. To have pulled off the act of ensuring that literally hundreds of polling officers wouldnt show up on the polling day in suspec...

Its just sad. Status quo again. Deja vu of the musical chairs that happened in the 90s. The disappointing performance of pti, yes disappointing, has popped the bubble that the urban voter is for non dynastic politics. It has dispelled the impression that we as a nation crave for idealism. The inkling that pakistanis will rise above ethnic lines to vote for parties based not on which ethnicity they represent but rather their stance on NATIONAL issues has proven to be a pipedream. The hope that a ballot box revolution will transform pakistan overnight has vanished. There will be no germany type hyper nationalism that will convert pakistan into a regional power despite all odds.  Pakistan will NOT rise from its ashes like the phoenix. How foolish were we to believe that facebook represented urban Pakistan. It will now be another five years of small incremental changes. The struggle of Imran Khan has been so long already that by the next elections, he will be 65 years of age. And...