Saturday, July 26, 2014
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Irrational thoughts: Malala wants us to draw the line!
Hasan Mansoor
Sometime one cannot think rational - rather wishes to be irrational. Sometime a person with dry brain prefer to allow his sleepy heart to converse, to agitate and go beyond the limit of sanity. It is hard to stay rational - even hard to vent one's emotions to speak.
It is this time when we are seriously thinking of a war against those whom many of us never took seriously in the past, whom everyone branded to be touts of one or another security establishments operating at home and away.
But, now when a rare resolute child has been attacked in Swat the apologists should not take it as a blast from the past but take this child as the whole country put on the ventilator.
It is time for the apologists to express their heart at least as openly as their beloved Taliban do when they spew venom on the remnants of our liberal posturing and take responsibility when they kill innocent people.
It is time to clearly draw the line, fill the grey areas and go for a final battle. When one tells the apologists they would not be spared either when the extremists would shun every saner voice, one certainly tells the truth.
The attackers who shot Malala in her forehead had to ask her classmates to recognise her before pointing the gun on her, but Malala, despite her tender age, knew her enemies long before - a sin she committed and was condemned to be eliminated by the dark forces.
Malala joined a rare group of individuals who stood for a small cause that ultimately became the mother of all causes, the greatest of all struggles. She just wanted to see her school open and succeeded. She contributed to revive Swat's liberal culture and got everyone reminded that most Pashtuns are still as liberal and human-loving as they had been since time immemorial.
She might have not known about Bacha Khan but she proved herself as his stout follower. In Malala even Awami National Party, Ghulam Mohammad Bilour and his clones in particular, should dig up to find its core identity.
Everyone should decide whether they are with Malala or with theTaliban. They should not enjoy poetic licence in drone attacks and religious connotations. Malala is one of thousands who have been killed and wounded in attacks planned by the dark forces based in shiny, scenic valleys and mountains. The apologists should also consider them Pakistanis.
Imran Khan says he would shoot down a U.S. drone if his party wins elections. He has no fear of United States, but at the same time he is afraid of Taliban when he told Talat Hussain in a TV show, his negative assertions against Taliban could risk the lives of his party cadres in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and tribal agencies.
Shahbaz Sharif once requested Taliban not to attack Punjab while some of his party's leaders have cordial relations with the banned extremist outfits. When Shah Mehmood Qureshi tows his party's line, Ayaz Amir is the rare free spirit.
"Why don't you denounce those who attack Malala. Condemn them openly, they have killed thousands of Pakistanis," Amir advised Qureshi in a TV talk show.
We should give the devil his due. You are free to hate Rehman Malik, Altaf Hussain and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, but they are at par with Ayaz Amir in their stance.
"I ask to religious scholars to condemn Taliban in their Friday prayers, condemn them openly. Why don't they condemn Taliban? Are they afraid of them....everyone should condemn these terrorists openly."
Everyone buys the above statement as positive and daring if it is not attributed to a speaker whom most detract and despise. So, let it be, we should move forward with positives.
Sometime one cannot think rational - rather wishes to be irrational. Sometime a person with dry brain prefer to allow his sleepy heart to converse, to agitate and go beyond the limit of sanity. It is hard to stay rational - even hard to vent one's emotions to speak. It is this time when we are seriously thinking of a war against those whom many of us never took seriously in the past, whom everyone branded to be touts of one or another security establishments operating at home and away.
But, now when a rare resolute child has been attacked in Swat the apologists should not take it as a blast from the past but take this child as the whole country put on the ventilator.
It is time for the apologists to express their heart at least as openly as their beloved Taliban do when they spew venom on the remnants of our liberal posturing and take responsibility when they kill innocent people.
It is time to clearly draw the line, fill the grey areas and go for a final battle. When one tells the apologists they would not be spared either when the extremists would shun every saner voice, one certainly tells the truth.
The attackers who shot Malala in her forehead had to ask her classmates to recognise her before pointing the gun on her, but Malala, despite her tender age, knew her enemies long before - a sin she committed and was condemned to be eliminated by the dark forces.
Malala joined a rare group of individuals who stood for a small cause that ultimately became the mother of all causes, the greatest of all struggles. She just wanted to see her school open and succeeded. She contributed to revive Swat's liberal culture and got everyone reminded that most Pashtuns are still as liberal and human-loving as they had been since time immemorial.
She might have not known about Bacha Khan but she proved herself as his stout follower. In Malala even Awami National Party, Ghulam Mohammad Bilour and his clones in particular, should dig up to find its core identity.
Everyone should decide whether they are with Malala or with theTaliban. They should not enjoy poetic licence in drone attacks and religious connotations. Malala is one of thousands who have been killed and wounded in attacks planned by the dark forces based in shiny, scenic valleys and mountains. The apologists should also consider them Pakistanis.
Imran Khan says he would shoot down a U.S. drone if his party wins elections. He has no fear of United States, but at the same time he is afraid of Taliban when he told Talat Hussain in a TV show, his negative assertions against Taliban could risk the lives of his party cadres in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and tribal agencies.
Shahbaz Sharif once requested Taliban not to attack Punjab while some of his party's leaders have cordial relations with the banned extremist outfits. When Shah Mehmood Qureshi tows his party's line, Ayaz Amir is the rare free spirit.
"Why don't you denounce those who attack Malala. Condemn them openly, they have killed thousands of Pakistanis," Amir advised Qureshi in a TV talk show.
We should give the devil his due. You are free to hate Rehman Malik, Altaf Hussain and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, but they are at par with Ayaz Amir in their stance.
"I ask to religious scholars to condemn Taliban in their Friday prayers, condemn them openly. Why don't they condemn Taliban? Are they afraid of them....everyone should condemn these terrorists openly."
Everyone buys the above statement as positive and daring if it is not attributed to a speaker whom most detract and despise. So, let it be, we should move forward with positives.
October 10, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Prices take shine off Pakistan weddings
by Hasan Mansoor
Pakistan’s traditionally lavish weddings have lost their sparkle this matrimonial season thanks to rising prices of gold and festive essentials in a limping economy overshadowed by Taliban attacks.
The colourful celebrations normally span three to five days and attract 500 to 1,000 guests, pushing the cost for the hard-hit lower middle class to between 300,000 and one million rupees (3,400-11,000 dollars).
“It has become too expensive. Everything is expensive. Even a simple wedding could break the back of poor people like me,” said Mohammad Aslam, 62, a retired government employee.
Aslam spent most of his pension on marrying off his elder daughter, forcing him to borrow 200,000 rupees to help fund his second daughter’s wedding.
A large part of the spending goes on gold jewellery, as in other South Asian countries, but sales are down partly because of rising global gold prices, businessmen say.
Gold surged to a new record high of 1,780 dollars an ounce during international trading in October 2012.
“Four years ago there was a demand for 7,700 ounces of gold daily, only for making jewellery in Pakistan. But now it has substantially decreased,” said Haroon Chand, a leading member of the country’s jewellers’ association.
Imports of gold through Dubai, which was Pakistan’s main source of the metal, have fallen significantly, he said.
“Affluent and middle class people have halved their spending on jewellery.”
Poor families usually have their old jewellery redesigned for the weddings of their children, he noted.
“I tried to skip some of our customs to reduce the cost of my son’s marriage, but I couldn’t because of family pressure,” Ahmed Ali, a car mechanic, said at his son’s wedding in Karachi’s Ranchore Lane.
“My wife wanted all that because he’s her only son. My son is also a mechanic and we have decided to repay the loans jointly as soon as possible.”
Pakistani families spend lavishly on gifts for the happy couple, food for guests at wedding events that drag on for days, or on a sumptuous dinner offered by the groom’s family at a wedding hall.
“What disturbs me most is that my daughters have also reached adulthood and their marriages will only be possible by taking more loans,” said Ali.
“Like me, the bride’s family has also taken loans for the marriage. We are all prisoners of our customs,” he added.
Chand blamed deteriorating law and order, increased taxes on gold imports, the weakening purchasing power of ordinary people and higher global gold prices for dealing the business “a big blow”.
Falling gold sales have seen people like Mohammad Akram, 33, laid off.
Until recently he worked as an artisan at a leading jewellery shop in an upscale neighbourhood of the teeming financial capital Karachi, a city of 18 million people that sprawls by the Arabian Sea.
“I am a skilled worker but am forced to ply a rickshaw to support my children,” Akram said.
But Nauman Ahmed says business has boomed at his costume jewellery shop during this year’s wedding season, between the Muslim feasts of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, because its fashionable designs are “cheap and affordable”.
Instead of gold, people are increasingly opting to buy silver and costume jewellery, mostly imported from China and India, Chand and shopkeepers said.
Escalating food prices have multiplied the cost of wedding banquets, with economists blaming Pakistan’s general economic downturn and militant attacks.
Independent economist A.B. Shahid said such hurdles, including ineffective government policies, may prevent Pakistan from meeting the official 4 percent growth target this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists have carried out a five-year campaign of attacks that have killed more than 5,000 people in Pakistan, a country of around 170 million people.
“Terrorism in our country has highly affected our economy. Our people cannot spend much and this situation could persist until we succeed in curbing militancy,” Shahid said.
Pakistan’s economy grew by two percent last fiscal year, the lowest rate in a decade, but even that level may not be attainable this year, Shahid said.
Pakistan’s traditionally lavish weddings have lost their sparkle this matrimonial season thanks to rising prices of gold and festive essentials in a limping economy overshadowed by Taliban attacks.
The colourful celebrations normally span three to five days and attract 500 to 1,000 guests, pushing the cost for the hard-hit lower middle class to between 300,000 and one million rupees (3,400-11,000 dollars).“It has become too expensive. Everything is expensive. Even a simple wedding could break the back of poor people like me,” said Mohammad Aslam, 62, a retired government employee.
Aslam spent most of his pension on marrying off his elder daughter, forcing him to borrow 200,000 rupees to help fund his second daughter’s wedding.
A large part of the spending goes on gold jewellery, as in other South Asian countries, but sales are down partly because of rising global gold prices, businessmen say.
Gold surged to a new record high of 1,780 dollars an ounce during international trading in October 2012.
“Four years ago there was a demand for 7,700 ounces of gold daily, only for making jewellery in Pakistan. But now it has substantially decreased,” said Haroon Chand, a leading member of the country’s jewellers’ association.
Imports of gold through Dubai, which was Pakistan’s main source of the metal, have fallen significantly, he said.
“Affluent and middle class people have halved their spending on jewellery.”
Poor families usually have their old jewellery redesigned for the weddings of their children, he noted.
“I tried to skip some of our customs to reduce the cost of my son’s marriage, but I couldn’t because of family pressure,” Ahmed Ali, a car mechanic, said at his son’s wedding in Karachi’s Ranchore Lane.
“My wife wanted all that because he’s her only son. My son is also a mechanic and we have decided to repay the loans jointly as soon as possible.”
Pakistani families spend lavishly on gifts for the happy couple, food for guests at wedding events that drag on for days, or on a sumptuous dinner offered by the groom’s family at a wedding hall.
“What disturbs me most is that my daughters have also reached adulthood and their marriages will only be possible by taking more loans,” said Ali.
“Like me, the bride’s family has also taken loans for the marriage. We are all prisoners of our customs,” he added.
Chand blamed deteriorating law and order, increased taxes on gold imports, the weakening purchasing power of ordinary people and higher global gold prices for dealing the business “a big blow”.
Falling gold sales have seen people like Mohammad Akram, 33, laid off.
Until recently he worked as an artisan at a leading jewellery shop in an upscale neighbourhood of the teeming financial capital Karachi, a city of 18 million people that sprawls by the Arabian Sea.
“I am a skilled worker but am forced to ply a rickshaw to support my children,” Akram said.
But Nauman Ahmed says business has boomed at his costume jewellery shop during this year’s wedding season, between the Muslim feasts of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, because its fashionable designs are “cheap and affordable”.
Instead of gold, people are increasingly opting to buy silver and costume jewellery, mostly imported from China and India, Chand and shopkeepers said.
Escalating food prices have multiplied the cost of wedding banquets, with economists blaming Pakistan’s general economic downturn and militant attacks.
Independent economist A.B. Shahid said such hurdles, including ineffective government policies, may prevent Pakistan from meeting the official 4 percent growth target this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists have carried out a five-year campaign of attacks that have killed more than 5,000 people in Pakistan, a country of around 170 million people.
“Terrorism in our country has highly affected our economy. Our people cannot spend much and this situation could persist until we succeed in curbing militancy,” Shahid said.
Pakistan’s economy grew by two percent last fiscal year, the lowest rate in a decade, but even that level may not be attainable this year, Shahid said.
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