Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images
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Monday, January 31, 2011
One by one, they’ll all fall
This is a new age a new era where the super powers are crumbling under their own weight. The network of client states governed by dictators to serve as proxies for the world’s super powers is fast crumbling.
The past six months have been the most empowering for the world’s disenfranchised. Wikileaks and the Palestinian Papers have revealed a mountain of evidence of global deceit against the poor and powerless.
The fire that started in Tunisia is now touching the heart of Arab’s consciousness. Egypt is about to wake up and rise against the dictator whose cursed shadow had rusted every dawn in the past three decades. There will be light and their will be freedom in Egypt. It may not happen tomorrow or next month, but it will happen soon.
The Mubarak regime has been trying to shut down people’s voices and even the Internet. See the graph below that shows how searches for the Facebook declined from within Egypt after the Mubarak regime pulled the plug on the Internet.
However, such tactics are not going to work. In the words of Faiz:
شہر کی فصیل پر دیو کا جو سایہ تھا
خاک ہو گیا آخر
رات کا لبادہ بھی چاک ہو گیا آخر
پاک ہو گیا آخر
اژدہام انسان سے فرد کی نوا آئی
ذات کی صدا آئی
راہ شوق میں جیسے راہ رو کا خون لپکے
اک نیا جنوں لپکے
آدمی ہنسے دیکھو
شہر پھر بسے دیکھو
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Pakistani flood victims and the elite
Image by United States Marine Corps Official Page via Flickr٢٠١٠ کے سیلاب کے بعد سیلاب سے متاثر لوگوں کی بد حالی پاکستان کے عوام کے لئے لمحہ فکریہ ہے - غربت اور افلاس کے مارے جب سیلاب میں اپنی جھونپڑیاں بھی ڈوبا چکے تو قوم پر لازم آتا تھا کہ اپنی توجیہات میں ان لاکھوں کو بھی شامل کرتے جو بھوک اور ننگ کی جنگ تنہا نہیں لڑ سکتے -
میں ٹورونٹو میں بیٹھا پاکستان کے امراء کی خرمستیاں پاکستانی ٹیوی پر روز دیکھتا ہوں. کہیں کوئی لودھی صاحب ناچتے گاتے نظر آتیں ہیں تو کہیں سیاسی تجزیہ نگار سیاسی قلابازیوں میں مصروف دکھائی دیتے ہیں - مفلس پاکستانیوں کی کہانی پاکستان کے امراء کی زبان سے عطا ہوتی دکھائی نہیں دیتی - اس کے برعکس امریکا اور کینڈا کے نشریاتی چنلز پر بھوکے ننگے پاکستانیوں کے لیے دوسرے منت سماجت کرتے نظر آتے ہیں.
پاکستانیوں، آنکھیں کھولو اور اپنی ذمے داری پہچانوں - اب بھی وقت ہے کہ جن کا نان نفقہ اور بہبود ہمارے ذمے ہے ہم ان کا حق ادا کر دیں اور اپنے آپ کو آج اور روز محشر شرم سے بچا سکیں -
میں ٹورونٹو میں بیٹھا پاکستان کے امراء کی خرمستیاں پاکستانی ٹیوی پر روز دیکھتا ہوں. کہیں کوئی لودھی صاحب ناچتے گاتے نظر آتیں ہیں تو کہیں سیاسی تجزیہ نگار سیاسی قلابازیوں میں مصروف دکھائی دیتے ہیں - مفلس پاکستانیوں کی کہانی پاکستان کے امراء کی زبان سے عطا ہوتی دکھائی نہیں دیتی - اس کے برعکس امریکا اور کینڈا کے نشریاتی چنلز پر بھوکے ننگے پاکستانیوں کے لیے دوسرے منت سماجت کرتے نظر آتے ہیں.
پاکستانیوں، آنکھیں کھولو اور اپنی ذمے داری پہچانوں - اب بھی وقت ہے کہ جن کا نان نفقہ اور بہبود ہمارے ذمے ہے ہم ان کا حق ادا کر دیں اور اپنے آپ کو آج اور روز محشر شرم سے بچا سکیں -
Friday, January 28, 2011
Unicef says severe malnutrition after Pakistan floods
This is not a picture from Somalia or Sudan. The haunting picture of a child, who has been reduced to skeleton, is a Pakistani child in his mother's lap.The devastating floods in July-August 2010 in Pakistan has exposed the vulnerable underbelly of Pakistan. The economy, society, and the state have failed. Famine now stares at the very poor that have been uprooted by floods in Pakistan.
The military and political leadership in Pakistan is indifferent to the plight of those who have put them in position of power. Only last night the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gilani, told BBC that his government is doing the very best it can.
The very best of the government in Pakistan has delivered famine instead of food and shelter. Pakistanis are better off without such sham democracy.
While the world is focussed on the Arab street, the situation is fast becoming conducive for a change in Pakistan, which should enable the starving to snatch food and resources from the political and military elite in Pakistan. The Arab street can wait. The starving in Pakistan cannot.
If you can, please donate generously to the World Food Programme and Unicef to help the poor in Pakistan. No one should die of hunger in this age of opulence and waste.
AFP: Severe malnutrition after Pakistan floods: UNICEF
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Palestinian Authority funded Iranian opposition
Image via WikipediaGrowing weary of the Hamas-Iranian nexus, the Palestinian Authority retaliated against Iran by pouring millions into a radio station to help the opposition led by Mir Hussein Mousavi against the Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad. These details were revealed in the Palestinian Papers released simultaneously by Al-Jazeera and the Guardian.It was only a few weeks ago that Wikileaks revealed through the release of American cables that the Saudi King was asking the Americans to attack Iran. Despite decades of Iranian support for the Palestinian people, the Sunni Arabs, including the Palestinians, miss no opportunity to inflict harm on the Shiite Persians.
The centuries old Arab-Ajam rivalries are going strong.
The Hindu : News / International : Palestine papers: Abbas sought funds for Iran
Pakistan floods crisis is far from over, says Oxfam
Six months after the devastating floods in Pakistan, life has not improved for most of the affectees.
BBC News - Pakistan floods crisis is far from over, says Oxfam
BBC News - Pakistan floods crisis is far from over, says Oxfam
Modesty photoshopped
In Photos: Pakistan flood survivors - Features - Al Jazeera English
In Photos: Pakistan flood survivors - Features - Al Jazeera English
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Capital punishment in Iran
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| An image taken from the Sunni Muslim militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) website, allegedly shows Saiful Rahman Chabahari (L) and Hessan Khashi (R), the two men who attacked a religious parade in the Iranian city of Chabahar. - AFP Photo |
TEHRAN: Iran on Monday hanged 11 members of Sunni militant group Jundallah which claimed last week’s devastating suicide bombing of a Shiite mourning procession, a judiciary official said.
“This morning 11 members of those belonging to (Jundallah), who in recent months were involved in terrorist attacks in the province (Sistan-Baluchestan), fighting with police, and martyring several innocent people have been hanged in Zahedan jail,” Ebrahim Hamidi, head of the provincial justice department, told state news agency IRNA.
Jundallah (Army of God) is a shadowy Sunni militant group which has claimed several deadly attacks in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, including a December 15 suicide bombing in the city of Chabahar which killed 39 people and wounded dozens.
Iranian government hangs political opponents
Iranian authorities have hanged two men convicted of taking part in protests following the disputed presidential election in 2009.
Iranian prosecutors said Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Hajaghaei had taken photos and footage of the protests and distributed them on the internet.
They were also found guilty of chanting slogans promoting the exiled People's Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI).
A PMOI leader in France, Maryam Rajavi, described the executions as barbaric.
The People's Mujahideen of Iran is an exiled opposition group which has campaigned against clerical rule in Iran and, before that, the Iranian monarchy.
It is seen by Tehran as a terrorist cell in the pocket of Western security services but is also on Washington's list of proscribed organisations because of its history of violent attacks.
After the presidential election in 2009, the internet - and specifically social networking sites - became a crucial means of mobilising hundreds of thousands of Iranians who disputed the results to protest.
Hundreds of people were arrested after the protests and although most have been released, more than 80 people have been jailed for up to 15 years, and at least four other people convicted of involvement in the demonstrations are reported to be on death row.
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