Chicken croissants, Karachi

Chicken croissants, Karachi
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Via Flickr:
One of the best snacks you can get anywhere in Karachi. That's from United King bakery, Sharfabad, Karachi. Rate: 8 pcs for Rs.108.

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Saudi Arab.....?

Tunisia down. Egypt down. At least the USA and Israel friendly president is gone, not the US friendly army. But someone has gone after 30 years. That alone should make Egyptians very happy indeed. Now Libya is in full swing. Over 200 protesters have been shot dead within these last 3 days or so. Al Jazeera website is reporting that foreign mercenaries, using high grade weapons, may be involved in indiscriminate shootings at the funeral yesterday. There is a point here: No good Muslim soldier or policeman would ever dare fire at the Muslim funeral. But a Christian or a Jew just might. I think this report is credible enough to demand world attention. After all, Mr. Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, the Libyan President, has been an American stooge since last so many years one can't just keep count on him. And his most strange habit of keeping women guards, pitching his tents wherever he travels to and his Ukranian nurse having big breasts, is all too well known now. But what should be very clear is that far from being an American enemy number 1, he is their friend. For their sake, he has kept his own people below poverty line, sold out his vast oil reserves to dubious Western companies, and has betrayed the trust of his fellow Muslims. For this alone this man and his entire cabinet should be dismissed and a trial held. I am really surprised that still there are people left - and they appear to be in thousands - who can still demand revolution. They are dying, falling like soldiers in a Hollywood movie, asking for a change. Libya's President must be very angry for he has surely ordered every protester dead. They are not shooting rubber bullets anymore, if we understand running commentary over Al Jazeera tweets, they are shooting real bullets and killing everyone in their way. This is a great tumultuous time for the embattled Middle East and the greatest puppet of them all, King of Saudi Arab (a Najdi not a Hashmite, mind you) must be very much concerned for his own throne, which was gifted to his ancestors by the scheming British spies displacing Ottoman overlords. Now it is a reversal time. USA, Israel and Europe, whose friends these bloody dictators have been all the way, are now being replaced. And I am sure CIA, MI6,7,5 or Mossad would be looking for newer, fresher puppets to replace the old stooges.

Baluchistan Diary - Day 11 / Back to Quetta

I mention this photograph in this running blog just because it has a sign board which I have never before photographed. And the moving truck makes it more relevant. The road itself is a patch work of various works: Iranian, Pakistani, no road and Japanese. Well, we were very tired so we stayed up at Dalbandin for night and then moved later on.

Britney as Jamila: Afghan elections goes awry

Funniest thing to have happened in a week is this: One Afghan election card has a photograph of a blond Britney Spears next to a name which says 'Jamila', a fairly common Muslim name. If it had been James Bond as Muala Buksh or Beckham as Barish Khan, it could have been missed by a lot of men at Afghan polling station. But to make Britney into Jamila is taking things to far. And I am not sure if Britney really enjoyed that sort of name changing and even nationality changing.

Such picture, though being hilarious, nevertheless proves beyond doubt that Afghan polls are total sham. And USA, of all the countries, wishes to save its face on Afghan democracy reforms. I am not sure who will win - one which is supported by USA will win - but whoever does will have to face lots of criticism over the conduct of this elections - and probably lot of Britneys as nightmare.

I hope, for once in a century, rigging at Afghan polls are not connected to Pakistan or its intelligence agency, ISI. Pakistan has been a kicking bag for much of American media. And Indians have ridden the wagon on and off. I am yet to hear someone suggest that Pakistan may be involved. It is good news so far. And we hope it remains as such.

Public Flogging and Private State of Pakistan

Today, I am once again appalled at what Zardari-led govt. (government?) has allowed to happen in Swat. Repeatedly the shocking video (still above) of a 17-year old Swati girl being flogged by men is nothing new. It happens in Afghanistan and it happens in Pakistan. Just that some daring man (now we know he is Shaukat and that he made this video in January) made it. He did not much care for his own life. More daring was his idea of sending it to Geo TV. Now that the video is out Pakistanis are once again under the spotlight. World is watching this video again and again and claiming that Pakistanis really don't deserve their own state. Savages roaming around with lashes, hitting at men and women at will; government failing substantially. All this must be a clue that Pakistan have had enough of its territorial life. Now it deserves to be broken down into chunks. And things like that.

The good thing about this clip and this event is that suddenly Pakistanis of all shades and sizes have realized that Taliban are no good. Even mullahs, who have traditionally been shaky about moral affairs, are behind govt.. They feel that something must be done about this Afghani / Saudi brand of fanatical Islam. But the hardliners (wahabis and such) are still not sure what they want. So they continue to support such horrible so-called Muslims.

Too bad, once again Pakistan's International image has gotten into serious trouble.

Greed at the forefront of terrorism

In Karachi every second man believes that most Pakistanis who are caught abroad having connection to a certain illegal activity is a Punjabi. That may be a pun but after repeatedly reading carefully the data of men and women caught in various countries (of Pakistani origin) I can confirm to my readers that indeed the assertion is to the point on most occasions but not all.

Pick Dawn (Pakistan's top English daily) any time of the year and the chances are you would find lot of Pakistanis caught smuggling heroin / drugs, caught while crossing into either Turkey or Greece; caught while attempting to fleece a foreigner women by first marrying her then getting off with her hard earned money. Most of the times the mention of a certain Pakistani caught, executed, remanded in custody will be from our biggest province, Punjab. Yet, somehow, Punjabis of all shapes and sizes deny this vehemently. As I write this blog today, early Sunday morning, I have yet another evidence to prove that greed and not religion is at the forefront of terrorism dropping from Pakistan's soil. Yet again men from Punjab are to be found guilty; yet again our Punjabi brothers will deny anything to do with this. But somehow, the entire operation in Mumbai last week was carried out by Punjabis (I won't call them Muslims for various personal reasons). The damning proof is for everyone to read from Guardian, ne of the best English papers in the world today:

'Ajmal Amir Kasab, interrogated in custody after last month's attacks, which killed 163 people, reportedly told Indian security officials that he came from a place called Faridkot in the Punjab province. His father was named as Mohammed Amir, married to a woman named Noor.'

and further,

'A villager, who cannot be named for his own protection, said the village was an active recruiting ground for the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. 'We know that boy [caught in Mumbai] is from Faridkot,' he said. 'We knew from the first night [of the attack]. They brainwash our youth about jihad, there are people who do it in this village. It is so wrong,' he added.

According to the villager and other locals, Ajmal has not lived in Faridkot for about four years but would return to see his family once a year and frequently talked of freeing Kashmir from Indian rule.'

Greed is a natural phenomena but a disproporionate quantity of it may be found amongst most Punjabis. For instance, they divert lot of water causing massive poverty in Sindh province; they disallow other ethnic groups to become part of our elite army; Punjabis remain an exclusive nation which sees itself as a superior ethnic group in Pakistan; they have more education than anyone else in Pakistan (this last example may not be itself a bad greedy bit but certainly it allows for much more), much thanks to Punjabi bureaucrats who are sincere to their own nation but not to all Pakistanis. Punjabis, as the popular saying runs around much of Karachi, interior Sindh and Baluchistan, can sell his mother for good money. So why won't he kill / maim helpless Mumbai wallas for millions of bucks (investigations into the actual amount paid to these terrorists by LeT are underway)?

I think that I am increasingly sounding very anti-Punjabi but for all these years data analsis collected in my brain tells me that indeed Punjabi greed has made Pakistan poorer not richer.

And somehow, we need to stop all this. This tremendous appitite for more and more money is causing massive international embarassment for all Pakistanis. I hope that saner voices among Punjabis would prevail in future and would be able to stop younsters, in search of a free ticket to Mumabi and a million dollar prize, from acting like killer machines.

Just hopes!