Most interesting statistics found in last week's Lexington column in the ECONOMIST.

Yet a poll last month found that most Americans would rather their government did less. Some 57% said it was doing too many things that were better left to individuals and businesses. Only 38% thought it should do more. The proportion who believe that government over-regulates private businesses has also risen from 38% to 45% in a year. And despite the attention lavished on Michael Moore’s new movie excoriating capitalism, only 24% of Americans think firms are under-regulated.

Totally crazy, people think that bank and corporations should have less regulation. Wow.

I've come to realize that people are best in short & light dosages. If the period of time you (I) spend with someone is too long, it will no doubt causes problems. I just had this realization which I'm sure the rest of the world has accept and embraced a long time ago. I'm usually a bit slow in comprehending emotional and social issues. When you first get to know people they seem nice etc. Its best to just keep it at that by keeping the dose low, don't see them too much and you can appreciate them. Don't get to personal and get into their life cuz then no doubt you will see the negative aspects. Another I think being introspective infront of other people is another problem, just keep that to yourself too.
So here is life lessons by Faraz for Faraz.

And another bombshell hit today, it's totally unrealistic to expect people to respect you. Even as just another human being. I think I always try to explain myself and let the other person know that I was trying to do the best that I can by doing this and that, but that's just futile. Just know what you are doing, be respectful of others but don't for approval and respect from them.

Had a good meal at Sr. Liz's today. Enjoyed the food.
Thinking about taking off next week. Don't know where to take off too though. Can't go to Zubi's she won't want to see me. Maybe I could meet Elliot for dinner or something in Isb.

Well thats all for now,

Daily Times: Sunday, January 07, 2007

Lahore Lahore Aye: Where Hindus and Sikhs once lived

By A Hamid

There were 300,000 Hindus and Sikhs living in Lahore as independence approached. By August 19 that number had sunk to 10,000, and by the end of the month to just 1,000. The majority moved to India. Many were killed though there is no knowing their number Some neighbourhoods of the city were entirely Hindu and Sikh, others were mixed, while some were solely Muslim. Gumti Bazaar was a purely Hindu neighbourhood, with the exception of one resident: Maulana Salahuddin Ahmed, editor of Adabi Dunya, the leading Urdu literary journal of its time.

Outside the gated city, other predominantly Hindu neighbourhoods included Krishen Nagar, Sant Nagar, Rajgarh (Kamni Kaushal lived here), Ram Galli, Nisbet Road, Qila Gujjar Singh, Shah Alami and Gowalmandi, while the population of Beadon Road and Nicholson Road was a Hindu-Sikh-Muslim mix. Ichhra and Model Town lay outside the city as it then was. Ichhra, a Muslim-majority area, was said to be the original Lahore, the very site where the foundation of the city had been laid by Lahoo, a son of Raja Ram Chander Ji. Model Town was founded by rich and upper middle-class Hindus and had few Muslim residents. Every house was fronted by a large lawn with lush fruit trees, especially ones that bore mangoes in summer. There was also a Model Town bus service that took you into the city, right up to Serai Rattan Chand, Gowalmandi and Shah Alami.

The residents of Model Town, who owned their spacious houses, were retired judges, rich businessmen, traders and upmarket store-owners. Many high court judges, doctors and engineers had also moved to Model Town from the city. Included among the residents of this best laid-out residential estate of Lahore were college professors and officers of the civil service. The famous communist leader BPL Bedi, who had studied at British and German universities, lived here. His son Kabir Bedi became a famous actor in post-independence India.

In British times, only a handful of Lahore’s Muslims could be called affluent. Even in the old city, most of the grand mansions or havelis belonged to Hindus and Sikhs, for example, Haveli Kabuli Mal, Haveli Dhyan Chand and Haveli Rai Diwan Chand. The only exception was Haveli Mian Khan, which was located between Rang Mahal and Mochi Gate. Mention, however, might be made of much smaller havelis owned by Muslims in the inner city. One was located in Mohalla Sammian. It was known as Haveli Judge Latif. The other was called Haveli Barood Khana where the family of Mian Amiruddin lived. It was located between Pani Wala Talab and Koocha Langay Mandi. Most of the Hindus who lived in the city traded in gold and silver, foodgrains and textiles, both wholesale and retail. All the moneylenders of Lahore were Hindu. Every business in Suha Bazaar, Machhi Hatta, Gumti Bazaar, Bazaaz Hatta and Shah Alami was owned by non-Mulsims. The only Muslim-owned store in Anarakli was Sheikh Enayatullah & Sons. Dabbi Bazaar had a number of small bookshops, mostly Muslim-owned. In the same Bazaar, you could find Kashmiri Pandits who sold shawls and fine wool fabrics.

Morning in the inner city in those pre-1947 days began with the siren sounded from the North Western Railway loco shop and Makandri Lal’s factory. The call to morning prayers was sounded from the city’s many mosques, while bells would be rung in Hindu temples to begin morning worship. Makandari Lal’s factory was located in Badami Bagh. Minto Park was where people took their morning walks and performed exercise. Cows and buffaloes were a common sight in city streets. Hindus respected the ox because they believed it to be Shivji Maharaj’s mount. The cow was of course sacred to all Hindus. Sometimes these animals would become a nuisance, blocking traffic as they would decide to sit in the middle of the street. Some Hindu shopkeepers would place large slabs of rock salt on the street for animals to lick. The more devout Hindus had built water troughs here and there for these animals to drink from. These were all very humane gestures.

In all Hindu neighbourhoods, you found wedding halls called Janj Ghar, which were a boon for families that did not have the means to hold wedding ceremonies at home. While Hindu women did not observe the purdah as many Muslim women did at the time, unmarried Hindu girls were not allowed to apply makeup or go around immodestly dressed. A great and beloved figure in the old city was that of Dr Sant Singh, whose clinic was located between Haveli Kabuli Mal and Chowk Chuna Mandi. He was an extremely kind-hearted man who would not charge for the medicines he dispensed. He treated everyone equally, without regard to their religion. Another very kind-hearted doctor inside Modhi Gate was Dr Bahadur Shah who also did not charge for the medicines he gave out. At times, he would even give money to the poorer among his patients so that they could buy themselves some milk to gain strength.

Whenever a Hindu funeral passed through the bazaar, Hindu shopkeepers would drop whatever they were doing, come down from their shops to stand on the street with their hands joined together in respect to the dead. When a Hindu died, his body was removed from the bed and placed on the bare floor, the belief being that if the dead person was left where he had died, his spirit would not leave the house. If a very old man died, his body was taken to the burning ground called shamshan ghat, led by a band playing merry music, including a popular movie hit of the time, Chal Chal re Naujawan (March on, march one, young man). Lahore’s three or four shamshan ghats were located outside the city, one on the banks of the Ravi where the painter Amrita Sher-Gil, daughter of a Sikh father and Hungarian mother, was consigned to fire. She was only 28.

The most famous shamshan ghat in the city was located beyond Texali Gate. A relative of ours lived not far from there and sometimes I would visit the family. If a body was being readied for immolation, I would watch it stealthily, utterly mesmerised. A close family member would pour ghee on the pyre and then set it alight. In the morning, milk was poured over what had been left of the pyre, the remains which were called phool picked up, placed in an urn and emptied into the Ravi. The more affluent would travel to Benaras to consign the remains to the waters of the sacred river Ganga. It was believed that this would free the departed soul from the endless cycle of death and rebirth.

On a dare, I once visited the shamshan ghat at night because I had heard that if one did that, one would be imbued with supernatural powers. I was so terrified that I did not have the strength in my legs to run back home. Then suddenly, I heard my mother’s voice, “Hamid, what are you doing here?” I turned but there was nobody there. I screamed and began to run, having somehow found the strength to do so. I never stopped till I had arrived home. Needless to say, I never went that way again, even during the day.

A Hamid, the distinguished Urdu novelist and short story writer, writes a column every week based on his memories of old Lahore. Translated from the Urdu by Khalid Hasan

Really stunning looking Land Cruiser created by Wald apparently only for the Russian market. Wouldn't be too surprised to find one in Islamabad next time I am down there. Well enough bitterness, the positive side is that it will look stunning where ever it may find itself.

---

He tells viewers that Obama's volunteerism efforts are really an attempt to create  a "civilian national-security force that is just as strong , just as powerful as the military."

Wow, was reading an old Time on the loo today. Came across this article about Las Vegas and how it has come to be hit really hard by the recession. Condos that were selling for 600,000 dollars last year are now selling for less than 200,000. How crazy is that.
Anyway the reason it was a worthwhile article, so much so that I logged into here to write  a bit about it is this casino owner Adelson. This guy was worth 40 billion last year apparently and now is worth 4 billion. But I guess what difference it makes, once you're past the 100s of million mark would it really make much difference to your lifestyle? The article says it does, read underline part at the bottom.
Funny, I kinda would want to know more about it. Seems like quite a character.
That is true even of Sheldon Adelson, who has lost more during this recession than anyone else on the planet. The 76-year-old chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns the Venetian hotel, the Sands Expo and Convention Center and the Venetian Macao, was in 2007 and '08 the third richest person in the world, with — by his estimate — a net worth of $40 billion. By February of this year, he said he had lost $36.5 billion — more than the GDP of half of the countries in the world. In the years before that slide, banks were begging him to take their money, given his massive success in building the first Vegas-style hotel and casino in Macao, China, in 2004. Adelson didn't hesitate, taking all he could get and building an entire mini-Vegas in Macao called the Cotai Strip, along with huge casinos in Singapore; he also doubled his Vegas space by adding the Palazzo to his Venetian hotel. In a short time, he has accumulated a debt-to-earnings ratio of 6.8 to 1 in the U.S. Then the loans stopped coming, and his stock price sank from $144 to $1.42 in March. (It now hovers at about $12.)

He doesn't seem too crushed by his losses. "A billion dollars doesn't buy what it used to. So it's not as tragic as one would assume," he says. "I say to my wife that the worst tragedy I could have in business deserves a two-hour cry, and I scale down from there. I didn't cry one moment." When his wife asked him to cut back on expenses, he dismissed the suggestion, telling her he still had more money than they could ever spend. Eventually he capitulated: whenever possible, he uses his small private jet instead of his big one.

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Quote

YouTube - Khwaja and Ijaz-ul-Haq get personal - Exposing Each Other!
  

An excellent little piece in the book I'm reading right now THE WHITE TIGER.

"These are the three main diseases of this country, sir: typhoid, cholera, and election fever. This last one is the worst; it makes people talk and talk about things that they have no say in ... Would they do it this time? Would they beat the Great Socialist and win the elections? Had they raised enough money of their own, and bribed enough policemen, and bought enough fingerprints of their own, to win? Like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra, the voters discuss the elections in Laxmangarh."
---Aravind Adiage (The White Tiger)


In other news I'm really craving Deli food these days. Like really good sandwiches on really good rich bread, maybe with some tomato soap or something. That place Jason's Deli in Longview was excellent.

Been reading this book on Gulen which compares his view with western philosophers. The first one compared was Kant and during the comparison the author said
"Kant is well aware of the emotionalism that often accompanies religion and, thus, does not view religious faith as a stable enough grounding for moral principles, which include the inherent dignity of all people. "

I thought that was quite an interesting view because whereas most people just throw out religious faith altogether he seems to be ok with it but knows it's weaknesses.
The book itself is quite interesting because it shows the similarities between people like Fethullah Gullen and John Stuart Mill, Sarte, Plato and Kant. Only read so far the Kant and Mill chapters.

How cool would it be to have a Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon scooter. I just saw one and I love it, its so basic and functional.
l.

Making the impossible possible

Thursday, August 06, 2009 Kamila Hyat The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor The latest incident of extremist mob violence, this time in a village near the town of Gojra, is a reflection of the anarchy, and the barbarity, we are spiralling towards. It is as yet unclear what – if anything at all – led Muslim zealots to burn down dozens of houses belonging to the Christian community. At least seven people, including at least three women and possibly a child, were burnt alive. Initial investigations by the Punjab government show no evidence that a copy of the Holy Quran was burnt, as was claimed. We do not yet know if there was a personal dispute of some kind, though this has in the past triggered such acts of insanity. It is also a fact that greed, a desire to seize property or wrest away business has led to similar attacks. The alleged involvement of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a force known for its incitement of hatred against non-Sunnis, proves too that extremism lives on in the country. The fact is that the defeat of the Taliban in Swat and other areas does not mean we have overcome our problems with militancy. The problems created over many years cannot of course vanish instantly. Indeed there are many strands to the havoc we face. It is indeed far from certain that we have even finally won back the northern areas. Reports state the militants have simply set up base in other districts or retreated to the mountains, and will attempt a comeback at some point. This is a worrying thought. But the problem of extremism lurks too in other places. The events in Gojra indicate the menace it presents and the fact that such violence can flair up anywhere and at any time. The southern Punjab has been identified as a place where many groups have their base. It is obvious that the ban placed on many of them in 2002 and afterwards has, for all practical purposes, no meaning at all. Is there then any way of turning back the tide? Of taking steps to ensure other citizens do not perish like the Christians murdered in Gojra? Of building a state of mind that accepts all citizens as being true equals, regardless of their belief or their ethnicity? It has over the past decade become clear how difficult a task this is. But it must be attempted if we are to build a sounder, safer, nation which is able and willing to protect the life and property of everyone who lives within its boundaries. This of course is the primary duty of the state. Its failure to fulfil it is one of the reasons for the chaos we find now, with the Rangers having to be deployed to prevent more killings in Gojra. The chain of happenings there exposes once more the inadequacies of this entity and the decreasing impact it has on the lives and the welfare of people. So, can anything be done? The main point to be made is that if this is even to be attempted, we need political will and long-term commitment. These are of course hard to find and demand that far more be done than merely making statements condemning the violence. To make any kind of real difference that goes beyond this, we must first make a serious effort to understand quite what went wrong and why. First-hand testimonies from those who lived through the 1950s and 1960s, indeed even beyond these years, narrate how the frenzied passions of Partition quickly died down to leave behind a mainly harmonious society, within which people who held different beliefs rarely clashed. The anti-Ahmadi laws of the 1970s were the first signal of how things could change and how swiftly this could happen. Since then, the creation of extremist groups, the imposition of discriminatory laws, the cropping up of thousands of madressahs and the change in mindset achieved mainly through school curriculums which promote bigotry have exacerbated the problems we face. Solutions need to be drastic. There is nothing to be gained by tinkering with what exists or making comments that are not backed by deeds. The decision to launch a full-fledged military action in the north was in many ways a brave one. It needs to be followed up still more courageously in other spheres. It has been said in the past, and indeed continues to be said today, that the madressahs that exist everywhere cannot be shut down. That it is impossible to do so at least in the immediate future; that perhaps the focus should be on reforming these institutions and that not all of them encourage militancy. There is of course some reason behind what is said. But the situation we find ourselves in means we must somehow seek out ways of making the impossible possible. Otherwise we will continue to flounder, and perhaps, one day, sink. It is true not all madressah's teach extremism, but what limited research has been conducted suggests even the so-called 'good' institutions; those whose pupils also sit regular exams and are taught by relatively better-educated teachers, build a particular way of thinking that constructs divisions within society on the grounds of gender and belief. What we need to divert immediate attention to is re-establishing our public schooling system and persuading donors to pour money into this sector, so that they can draw back the pupils they have lost over the decades to madressahs. In many cases the fact that the madressahs offer clothing and food and shelter has been a key factor in this. This aspect too needs to be debated and perhaps means found to offer a meal, or at least a glass of milk, in government schools. Donations have in the past been collected to 'modernise' madressahs. There is no evidence at all that this has worked to alter the nature of these institutions. Questions are now also being asked on where the money for such 'modernisation' went. We need an altered strategy and a readiness to replace madressahs with schools. The dichotomy we see now must end. We also need more research on how the madressahs have altered the face of our society and what can be done to reverse this. In other spheres of life too we need action. The private television channels have played a part in generating more debate and more open discussion on issues of religion. Such discussions must be encouraged, so that we can regain the lost tolerance of the past. School textbooks too can and should be revised to achieve a similar change in thinking – to alter a situation where even in some of the most elite private schools, small children distinguish between Muslim and non-Muslim teachers. None of this is easy to achieve. It will take time and a great deal of effort. But the fact is that we need to take drastic action if we are to prevent other acts of inhuman brutality of the kind seen in Gojra. Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com

An excellent article about the recent burning and killing of Christians in Gojra.
Thank god some people in Pakistan are not scared to oppose Sipah-e-Sahaba.

Burned at the stake

Thursday, August 06, 2009 By Talat Farooq

Let us hope that in the wake of the Gojra incident the suo motu action taken by the chief justice of the Lahore High Court will result in justice for the aggrieved Christian community. Until now blasphemy cases have been settled mostly by vigilantes and not by the judicial system. Although under the blasphemy law none of the accused has been executed to date, the lynch mob has often taken the law into its own hands, and with impunity. In 1997, the twin villages of Shantinagar-Tibba Colony were looted and burned by hundreds of zealots and policemen acting together after an alleged desecration of the Holy Quran. The police, after evacuating the Christians, helped the zealots loot and blow up the victims' property, using battlefield explosives. The Sipah-e-Sahaba was linked to the tragedy. In 2005, a local elected politician led a mob of 3,000 and, helped by the police, wreaked havoc on Christian homes and churches in Sangla Hill after a rumour of desecration was started by religious elements. It was alleged by the archbishop of Lahore that the mobsters were brought into the town on buses. The Punjab government was prevented from acting fairly by a Lahore-based Sunni cleric and his lashkar. And this past June 30, all hell broke loose in Bahmaniwala in Kasur after a Muslim and Christian youth driving tractor trolleys started to quarrel on the right of passage. The scuffle soon turned into anti-Christian violence after the local cleric announced from the mosque that Christians had desecrated the Quran and therefore a "jihad" was in order. The violent mob burned and looted Christian property and churches. More than 700 people took refuge in fields at night to escape the wrath of the mob. The latest incidents in Gojra tell a similar tale. The Punjab law minister himself said on record that after initial investigations it was revealed that no act of desecration had taken place and that the violence was fuelled by rumours of the alleged act – and that the mob was being led by a cleric. While neighbours settled scores, the mob took the law into its own hands on the instigation of extremists of the Sipah-e-Sahaba from Jhang. And all this while the law enforcers watched and did nothing. Reports that the Punjab government had been forewarned of such violence have been denied by Punjab police officials. Nonetheless, the wilful inaction by the police during the incident is there for all to see and cannot be denied. Be it the burning of women accused of being witches in medieval Europe or acts of the zealots in today's Pakistan, it is quite evident that religious fanaticism feeds on mob mentality. It is easier for people fearing for their own lives and safety to succumb to the herd instinct and join stone-throwing crowds. Moreover, many find it emotionally cathartic to vent on a weaker group their pent-up anger at their own sorry state of existence. With regard to the victimisation of religious minorities, the zealots often not only incite the mob but also pressure or threaten judges and lawyers after an accused has been arrested. Because of the presence of extremist elements within their cadres as well as lack of moral courage, members of the law enforcement agencies easily succumb to pressure or intimidation. They provide impunity to private acts of vengeance by either actively participating in violence or through delaying tactics. By deliberately failing to apprehend the culprits, such officials become accomplices of the criminals. Add to this the pliant state that gives in to the blackmail of religious extremists, and the recipe for disaster is complete. In the aftermath of Gojra, both the Punjab and federal governments have been quick to take stock of the situation. One hopes that all the political hustle and bustle will not translate into monetary compensations alone, and that the culprits will be punished in accordance with the law. Extremists and bigots are enemies of society and must be dealt with with an iron hand. There is no point in appealing to their better sense because they do not have any. They are like serial killers who must be quarantined for the security and the general good of society. Any law that gives rise to discrimination or abuse or is so open-ended as to jeopardise human rights is itself contrary to the spirit of Islam and should be either repealed or drastically amended forthwith. The concept of desecration of the Holy Quran should be widened to include wilful manipulations of Quranic injunctions and of using the Holy Book out of context to incite others to violence. It is a sad commentary on our collective double standards that while we are ready to follow rituals and do things which only change one's physical appearance, we do not follow the Holy Prophet's (PBUH) many acts where he emphasised the importance of tolerance, where he fought for the oppressed or where he countered irrationality and ignorance with the power of reason and intellect. The writer is executive editor of the magazine Criterion, Islamabad. Email: talat farooq11@gmail.com

HILARIOUS ARTICLE.
LEXINGTON

Lexington

Glad to be godless

Jul 16th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Reflections on a summer camp for the children of atheists

Illustration by KAL

AS PART of a travelling Christian drama group, Don Sutterfield used to perform short plays. In one, a young man gives his girlfriend a rose and tries to persuade her to have premarital sex. The couple walk off, leaving the rose behind. Jesus picks it up and starts plucking the petals. “They love me, they love me not…”

Pious audiences loved it, says Mr Sutterfield. He and his chums would stand at the altar of a Pentecostal church, speaking in tongues, laying on hands and praying for members of the congregation to be delivered from sin, sickness and sexual perversion. Occasionally, they would attempt to drive out evil spirits. It was incredibly dramatic, says Mr Sutterfield: like the movie “The Exorcist”, only with lots of exorcists. At the time, Mr Sutterfield was “immeasurably proud” of his work. But with hindsight, he thinks it was a load of mumbo-jumbo. He is now a militant atheist. He organises secular groups at universities and, this summer, volunteered at Camp Quest, a network of summer camps for secular kids. Lexington visited one in Clarksville, Ohio.

In most ways, it is like other summer camps. Kids aged 8 to 17 share cabins in the woods. During the day, they paddle canoes, shoot arrows, go swimming and explore nature. At night, they chat beneath the stars. Like other summer camps, Camp Quest satisfies a demand that springs from America’s combination of very long holidays for children and very short ones for their parents. Unlike other camps, it is staffed entirely by humanists.

They are not pushy or preachy, but scepticism flavours nearly everything they do. Lunch comes with a five-minute talk about a famous freethinker. Campers are told that invisible unicorns inhabit the forest, and offered a prize if they can prove that the unicorns do not exist. The older kids learn something about the difficulty of proving a negative. The younger ones grow giggly at the prospect of stepping in invisible unicorn poop. There’s a prize for the tidiest cabin, too, because “cleanliness is next to godlessness”, jokes Amanda Metskas, the director.

Campers are not told that there is no God; only that they should weigh the evidence. They learn about the scientific method. An amateur biologist invites them to gather creepy-crawlies from a nearby pond. They are told how sensitive each species is to pollution, and asked to work out from this how polluted the pond is. They find several critters that can survive only in clean water, and conclude that the pond is in good shape. The kids are encouraged to explore ethical questions, too. The more argumentative ones sit in a clearing and debate the nature of justice.

The kind of people who send their kids to Bible camp are appalled. Answers in Genesis, a Christian fundamentalist group, berates Camp Quest for drumming a “hopeless” world view into young minds. But a humanist camp is less about indoctrination than reassurance that it is all right not to be religious; that it is possible to be moral without believing in the supernatural. Nearly all the kids at Camp Quest say they find it comforting to be surrounded by others who share their lack of belief. Many attend schools where Christianity is taken for granted. Many keep quiet about their atheism. Those who don’t are sometimes taunted or told they will burn in hell.

Atheists are broadly disliked in America. Only 5% of Americans admit that they would not vote for an otherwise qualified black presidential candidate, but 53% say they would shun an atheist. That makes the godless less popular than Muslims, Mormons or gays. Granted, the proportion of Americans who say they might vote for an atheist has doubled in the past half-century, and the polls are muddied by those who do not know what an atheist is.

Only one congressman—Pete Stark of California—openly admits to non-belief. When Barack Obama was inaugurated as president, he described America inclusively, as “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.” But since then he has publicly invoked Jesus more frequently than George Bush junior did, according to Politico, a political newspaper. “I was surprised. I thought he’d be different,” says Valerie, a 12-year-old at Camp Quest.

Although America’s atheists are not loved, they are not persecuted. Hate crimes against them are almost non-existent. In 2007 only six were reported to the FBI, and that included minor offences such as vandalism. (By way of comparison, there were 969 anti-Jewish hate crimes.) Of course, the fact that atheists are practically invisible makes them less vulnerable. A neo-Nazi can easily identify a synagogue or the Holocaust museum in Washington. But how do you spot an atheist? The guy you see walking a dog on Sunday morning could be planning to go to evensong.

Many atheists opt to remain in the closet, except perhaps with their closest friends. It is the path of least resistance. Deny the existence of God and you may be challenging your neighbours’ most deeply held beliefs. That could get you ostracised, so why risk it? Yet living in the closet has costs. Christians have their beliefs constantly reinforced by neighbours who proudly and openly share them. Atheists often wrestle with their consciences alone, even though they are perhaps 8% of the population. Christopher Hitchens, the author of an antireligious polemic in 2007, observed that half the people who came to his book-promoting speeches had thought they were the only atheists in town.

Isolation matters especially when it comes to bringing up children, a tough task at the best of times. Christian parents can call on a vast support network of churches, Sunday schools, Bible camps and incidentally religious organisations such as the Boy Scouts. Atheists have precious little to compare with this. Small wonder the kids at Camp Quest seem so cheerful.

Economist.com/blogs/lexington

Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

Really interesting article I read out of an old Time magazine that was sitting around the house. Its too bad I didn't read time more often while I was in the US, I missed out. Good to be back in PK and reading Time every week.
Here's an excellent article about how conservatives like to view history (Dick Cheney). It struck a cord with me because it mentioned the Thermopylae 300 movie which I enjoyed immensely due to it excellent action sequences but detested the blatant propaganda in it. I think in the whole film we see only 3 Persian faces, two of which are black...African Persians? And one fat ugly and terribly foreign looking guy with a whip. Whereas all the greeks are good looking, blonde and real people with emotions, wives and general human stuff.
Anyway, enough of my poor punctuation and grammar. Here is the article.

Virgil Goes Viral

At school, I loathed Latin, in general, but I detested Virgil in particular. After you'd spent hours wading through conjugations and declensions and ablative absolutes and gerunds and pasts perfect, imperfect and pluperfect, there was the pointless torture of learning and then reciting lines of dactylic hexameter about this bloke wandering aimlessly around the Mediterranean at the whim of a perpetually pissed-off goddess. I mean, even Milton was more fun than that.

Imagine my surprise, then, to open Robert Fagles' new translation of The Aeneid and discover that it's, you know, pretty great stuff. Here's the demise of Euryalus: "He writhes in death/ as blood flows over his shapely limbs, his neck droops,/ sinking over a shoulder, limp as a crimson flower/ cut off by a passing plow." Fagles published terrific translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey a few years ago, so maybe I shouldn't have been gobsmacked by his Virgil. They're all quite popular too, part of a renewed passion for the classical world. The culture has lately offered up for mass consumption two new histories of the Peloponnesian War, a whacking great biography of Julius Caesar, a film on Alexander the Great (plus a book lauding his business strategy), the current bbc-hbo series on Rome, Robert Harris' recent novel Imperium and a book (with a film to come this year) on the battle of Thermopylae.

In this enthusiasm, the usual biases seem to be absent. Old fogies like me are reaching for the classics and so are young guns; 300, the film about Thermopylae, is based on a graphic novel. Conservatives sup at the classic cup; Victor Davis Hanson, a scholar of ancient warfare, is Dick Cheney's favorite historian. (One of the lessons of the Peloponnesian War, Hanson writes, is that "resolute action" brings "lasting peace." Ah, yes.) And liberals seek succor from the ancient texts too; it is easy to read Harris' novel on political intrigue in Ciceronian Rome as a critique of the idea that external threats justify politicians taking extraordinary power. But why this sudden thing for the toga-and-sandals set? Quid donat?

We reach for the classics, I think, when we are uncertain of our own bearings. We imagine that the Greeks and Romans knew what stars to steer by, that virtues such as honor and bravery, nobility and loyalty, guided their behavior. We think that the classical world was sharply defined, immune to the little cowardices of doubt. We would like the comfort of thinking that our times can be like that too. "This administration ... divides the world into friends and foes, and the foes are incorrigible and not redeemable," veteran Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross told the New York Times recently, which sounded to me like a description of a bunch of people who just love reading the classics.

I do too. I like the fact that in our small-bore times, we can look back and see rock-jawed men (rarely women, I fear) like Caesar and Mark Antony, heroes who bestride the narrow world like colossi. There's much to be said for hero worship--a lot more, in any event, than for its opposite, which is the cynical assumption (distressingly common among journalists) that nobody but liars ever entered public life. But we can misuse the past too, especially if we look back to what we think was a time of moral clarity and of actions based upon it--and then use that supposed lesson as a way of beating up our miserable selves for lives of tentative compromise.

In truth, life has always been a shades-of-gray thing; there's something dishonest about cherry-picking the past as if it was always nobler than the present. The Greeks were indeed cultured and eloquent. They were also the most frightful pederasts, but you don't hear much of that from their conservative admirers today, nor that stoic, law-giving Romans spent 200 years figuring out really, really bad ways to kill Christians.

There's nothing especially venal about the ancients in this regard; nobody's perfect or ever was. The classical world knew crosshatching as much as bands of white and black; the Greeks and Romans had their moments of doubt. Here's Virgil's Aeneas in the underworld, catching sight of his erstwhile lover, Dido, Queen of Carthage, whom he had deserted as she climbed onto her funeral pyre: "Oh, dear god, was it I who caused your death?/ I swear by the stars, by the Powers on high ... I left your shores, my Queen, against my will ... Stay a moment. Don't withdraw from my sight." That sounds like a man distressed, confused, lost, uncertain, indecisive: a man like us and none the worse for that.

• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582332,00.html

Pakistan will win war against extremists: Obama

Sunday, June 21, 2009 Rules out mediation on Kashmir; says no one can push Islamabad on Waziristan operation News Desk RAWALPINDI: US President Barrack Hussain Obama has ruled out sending American troops to Pakistan to hunt down top al-Qaeda leadership and expressed confidence that the Pakistani government and military would win war against extremists. In an interview, the American president also expressed confidence in the Pakistani government ability to safeguard the nuclear weapons. “I have confidence that the Pakistani government has safeguarded its nuclear arsenal. It’s Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.” When asked was Pakistan strong enough to win war against extremists, Obama said: “Well, I think that — I have confidence in the Pakistani people and the Pakistani state in resolving differences through a democratic process and to isolate extremists. Dating back to Jinnah, Pakistan has always had a history of overcoming difficulties. There’s no reason why it can’t overcome those difficulties today.” To a question about pushing Pakistan into the military operation in Waziristan, Obama said nobody could or should push the Pakistani government. The Pakistani government was accountable to the people of Pakistan. “I think the Pakistani government and the people of Pakistan recognize that when you have extremists who are assassinating moderate clerics like Dr Naeemi, when you have explosions that are killing innocent women and children, that that can’t be the path for development and prosperity for Pakistan. And so there’s been a decision that’s made that we support, that the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government will not stand by idly as extremists attempt to disrupt the country.” But, he added, ultimately these were decisions to be made by the Pakistani government and the Pakistani people. The US president said: “We would much prefer being a partner with countries like Afghanistan or Pakistan, and simply work together on issues of common interest like commerce and increasing trade and improving development in all countries. But it’s very difficult to do that if you have people who have distorted a great religion and are now trying to wreak havoc not only in the West but most often directed against fellow Muslims in places like Pakistan. And that is something that we will always stand against.” When asked about anti-American sentiments in Pakistan due to drone attacks and any plan to send troops to Pakistan for hunting down Osama, Obama refused to comment on specific operations. However, he ruled out sending American troops to Pakistan. “Pakistan and its military are dealing with their security issues. The support that we’ve provided right now is focused primarily on the internally displaced persons.” He said, “Our primary goal is to be a partner and a friend to Pakistan and to allow Pakistan to thrive on its own terms, respecting its own traditions, respecting its own culture. We simply want to make sure that our common enemies, which are extremists who would kill innocent civilians, that that kind of activity is stopped, and we believe that it has to be stopped whether it’s in the United States or in Pakistan or anywhere in the world.” About any plan to visit Pakistan, he said, “I would love to visit. I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook.” He said he could cook keema and dal. He said he had a great affinity for Pakistani culture and the great Urdu poets. He said: “So my hope is, is that I’m going to have an opportunity at some point to visit Pakistan.” To a query about Pak-India dialogue and Kashmir issue, the US president ruled out mediation between Pakistan and India, and said: “We can’t dictate to Pakistan or India how they should resolve their differences, but we know that both countries would prosper if those differences are resolved.” “I don’t think that we’ve been silent on the fact that India is a great friend of the United States and Pakistan is a great friend of the United States, and it always grieves us to see friends fighting.” “I believe that there are opportunities, maybe not starting with Kashmir but starting with other issues, that Pakistan and India can be in a dialogue together and over time to try to reduce tensions and find areas of common interest. And we want to be helpful in that process, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to be the mediators in that process.” He said dialogue was the best way to reduce tensions. He maintained that the recent meeting between Prime Minister Singh and President Zardari wasn’t an extensive conversation but it was the start of what might end up being more productive conversations in the future. He also appreciated the services of the Pakistani American community in the US and said, “One of the great opportunities I think for Pakistan is to be able to draw on all this talent and extraordinary entrepreneurship to help provide concrete benefits to the Pakistani people, and I think that’s one of the biggest challenges for Pakistan.” “We want to be a partner in opening up trade opportunities, but making sure that people on the ground, day to day, they’re getting an education, children are going to school, that farmers are able to get a decent compensation for their products, that electricity and infrastructure is built, because I know the Pakistani people and I know that if the tools are there available to them, then they will thrive and continue to be a great nation.” When about his opinion on conditions to US aid for Pakistan, Obama said, “We have to help Pakistan and provide them the resources that will allow for development. Now, we have in the past supported Pakistan militarily. I think it is important to make sure that military support is directed at extremists and our common enemies.” “But I also think that the relationship between the United States and Pakistan can’t just be based on military-to-military cooperation. It’s got to be based on something richer that involves development and exchanges of students and business people, and development. And so we want to encourage that kind of work, as well.” He also mentioned US efforts effort that raised $5 billion of development assistance for Pakistan at a donors conference in Japan, and American aid of hundreds of millions of dollars for internally displaced people. “That’s the kind of strategy that I think will bring our countries closer together. And having known the people of Pakistan, I am convinced that the future between our two countries can be very, very bright,” he observed. To a question about Iran’s situation, the US president said, “I think that what’s been happening in Iran is remarkable. We respect Iran’s sovereignty, but we also are witnessing peaceful demonstrations, people expressing themselves, and I stand for that universal principle that people should have a voice in their own lives and their own destiny. And I hope that the international community recognizes that we need to stand behind peaceful protests and be opposed to violence or repression.” About Middle East problem, Obama said, “I’ve been very aggressive in saying that Israelis and Palestinians have to resolve their differences and create two states that can live side by side in peace and security, and I’ve put forward a special envoy, George Mitchell, a former majority leader of the United States Senate, to work with the parties involved.”

Comparing India and Thailand

Sunday, June 21, 2009 Aakar Patel A visit to Thailand takes the Indian aback because the civilisation is so advanced. We're used to landing in cities and discovering that they are more modern than ours, and have superior infrastructure. Indeed, it's not easy for the Indian to name a nation whose cities are in as much disarray as his. This difference is fine when we go to Europe or America, because we see white people in a different way, and expect them to be better than us. But a coloured race showing its superiority is troubling. And the slap in Thailand comes not from infrastructure or modern cities, but from culture. Thais behave as Europeans do. Let us look at how. Traffic is disciplined, and always in formation. Cars and rickshaws stay in their lane. This is not because they are policed (I have visited Thailand a few times and cannot say what a traffic policeman looks like), but because that is the culture. Bangkok, with two million (20 lakh) cars, has evening jams as bad as those in Bombay. But these are silent jams, and this is the second thing we observe in Thailand: people do not honk. Cars remain in their place, moving forward when their turn comes. There are no signs that instruct them not to: they just don't honk. But why not? Because there is trust that the driver in front and to the side is going to act correctly -- and inevitably they do. Cars do not cut across each other or scramble for position or occupy space merely because otherwise someone else might. In India the trust is missing and, that is why, so is the discipline. The third difference is the approach to work. Thais do things themselves, as people do in the west. But there is also, unlike India, a culture of equality of work. In the northern town of Chiang Mai, a French literature graduate from university told me he was saving up the 270,000 baht (about Rs3.4 lakh) to buy an auto-rickshaw, what Thais call a tuk-tuk. How many of our graduates would want to be known as a rickshaw driver? This was not a romantic thought. It would give him an income that would be close to what he would make in a white collar job, unthinkable in India. I have seen some middle-class Thais supplement their income by putting up stalls in weekend markets, many arriving at the place in their cars. This points to a comfort with one's status in life that is not there in our culture. The fourth difference is cleanliness. Thais are one of the cleanest races in the world. Countries are clean in Europe also, but they don't have a street culture like Thailand does. Bangkok lives outdoors and life spills out onto the street at all times of the day. Few families cook at home, and so most meals -- breakfast, lunch and dinner -- are had in stalls on the streets. Despite this, roads are always clean. I have not seen civic workers on my visits, though certainly there are. The streets are clean because Thais clean up their own mess. Food stalls on the road have no rubbish strewed about them. There is also hygiene: the vendor of fruit on the street cuts and serves it without ever touching it with his hands. Before dawn, passing a closing food stall in one of Bangkok's roughest neighbourhoods, I saw its owner scrub it clean before he left. Most toilets anywhere in the country, city, town, village, airport, restaurant, will not just be clean, they will be polished and fragrant. Why? One reason is personal hygiene, which all Indians think they have. The second is ownership. The culture is not me-versus-the-world, as it is in India where, outside our homes, we leave a place dirty because someone else will clean it up and we are not coming back to it. Across Thailand, in its cities, on its islands, in the small villages of its different tribes -- Hmong, Lisu, Lahu -- this cleanliness is constant. It does not change in the areas of the poor, who are few, or the peasant. In a town market, which was swept clean and shut by the time I got there at night, shops had left their goods outside, in the open without fear of theft. The fifth thing we notice is respect for the individual and for personal space. And this one is what separates truly civilised cultures from tribal ones: the ability to see the human being as an individual, irrespective of the way he looks. And the knowledge that the individual's space must not be intruded upon physically or mentally without apology. To see it so entrenched in Thailand is puzzling because Thailand was never colonised and Thais have no access to European culture, because they cannot speak English or any other European language. It means that their civic behaviour is not the result of a process of modernisation, as it would be in India, but inherent to the culture. This is a most difficult thing for the Indian to swallow, because we are convinced of the greatness of our heritage. Worryingly, for us that is, Thais haven't needed a period of colonisation to absorb and emulate what constitutes modern civic behaviour. Thais will wait a few steps away from someone talking to another person, and approach only when the other is disengaged. This ability to see people as individuals means that there is politeness of a sort that takes the Indian aback. On a visit a few years ago, a woman whose village shop I was in was approached by a beggar, who was tattered and bleeding. She did not give him any money, but spoke to him with the same politeness and respect that she showed me. At a factory manufacturing silk in northern Thailand once, I heard the raised voice of an irritated customer in the showroom asking the saleswoman not to play games over the discounts available. It was a woman in an Indian group, of course, and I fled -- in embarrassment at the woman's behaviour but also in shame because I knew that it could just as easily have been me: that is how we behave with sellers. No Thai behaves like that. It means that there is something within Thai culture that makes them civilised, but what? Could it be Buddhism, the dominant feature of Thai culture? If it is, then the message Thais absorbed from that religion is very different from the one absorbed in India, the source of Buddhism. But it is unlikely to be religion, because Thais acknowledge their 'bad' Buddhist practice of being non-vegetarian. No Thai except the most dedicated monk is vegetarian. Thais have a culture that is borrowed from India (their epic is the Ramayan) but is different in some ways. Thai temple dance is sensual, as dance should be. I find the slow swaying of their hips by Thai girls, accompanied by precise gestures of hand and head, hypnotic and riveting. Thai culture is spectacularly aesthetic, and, unlike India's, fully engaged with nature. Flower pots have clear water, aquatic plants and little fish. The fish, I realised, also ate up mosquito larvae. Architecture is first rate, whether the house owner is rich, middle-class or peasant. In Bombay you could spend a million dollars (Rs4.5 crore) buying an apartment and the building would look like rubbish. Thailand's infrastructure is 30 or 40 years ahead of India's and, if anything, I find the gap increasing each visit. Mind you, Thailand is not even among the four Asian economies which are called tigers: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. And, with over 60 million people, Thailand is not a city-state, but even so, Thailand's per capita income is four times higher than India's, and its income distribution is superior. India has a great religious heritage and one of the world's finest artistic cultures, deep and wide, from Indo-Persian to Carnatic, and we are justly proud of it. But an unemotional observation of our civilisation will reveal how it is also different, and wanting. We could tell ourselves, as Naipaul has, that we had something superior once which was disturbed by foreign invasion. But the evidence for that is thin. The parts of India that have not been touched by colonisation are actually primitive. And there is nothing noble or civilised in the way that these communities live: the life of people in these villages is as short and as brutal as those of animals. The best of India, intellectually, culturally and civilisationally is in its towns and cities, not its villages. And when we compare our cities and our civic behaviour with those of the world we are humbled by our mediocrity. The writer is director with Hill Road Media in Bombay. Email: aakar@hillroadmedia.com http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=184191

Swat operation and the fallout beyond

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 By Rahimullah Yusufzai

Though the armed forces are carrying out operations against Taliban primarily in Swat, Buner and Lower Dir, the fallout of the action in neighbouring districts and beyond should remain a matter of concern. Dislocated from their bases and scattered as a result of the army assault, the militants are finding sanctuaries in new places and striking in areas outside their traditional strongholds. This reminds one of Afghanistan in the pre- and post-9/11 period. Prior to the US invasion of the country in October 2001, Al Qaeda was headquartered in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Following the fall of Taliban regime, Osama bin Laden and his men lost most of their sanctuaries in Afghanistan and had to relocate elsewhere. Most came to neighbouring Pakistan, from where some of them embarked on a risky journey to their native countries or to new trouble-spots such as Iraq. The majority stayed put in the region, mostly in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and became a threat to the governments in Kabul and Islamabad by making and strengthening alliance with like-minded militant groups in the two countries. Rather than being contained, Al Qaeda and the Taliban spread their influence beyond borders and become an even bigger threat to the established order than they were when well-entrenched in Afghanistan during the 1994-2001 period. It also became difficult to apprehend them as they were no longer confined to one place and country. Upper Dir, which became a separate district when Dir was split into two some years ago, is part of Malakand division but it wasn't supposed to be an active front in the ongoing military operations. But it is fast becoming one due to Taliban activities in the remote Dhog Darra area. The security forces have already bombed the few villages where the Afghan Taliban got refuge and built sanctuaries. Troops also moved artillery batteries to the Khal area to fire at Taliban hideouts in the adjoining Swat valley. Gradually, Upper Dir was getting engulfed in the military action. However, the situation deteriorated following the recent suicide bombing in a mosque during Friday prayers at the Hayagai Sharqi village. The death of 50 villagers, including children, in the attack could have provoked anyone to take revenge. And that is what the aggrieved villagers and their allies are now doing, raising a lashkar, or armed volunteer force, and storming the three pro-Taliban villages - Shatkas, Ghazigay and Salambekay -, because they are convinced the suicide bomber came from there. After months of social boycott of these villagers and clashes, the majority anti-Taliban villages are now bent upon settling scores with the enemy. For obvious reasons, the government is taking no step to stop the fighting. Instead, it seems to be encouraging or could even be supporting the lashkar to go for the kill. This is the kind of battle that is fuelled by new blood-feuds and is never-ending until one side is vanquished and forced to accept the terms of surrender. Heavily-armed villages and clans hostile to each other cannot co-exist in peace, more so if they are supported and supplied by the government or militant groups such as Taliban. In the past also, the government has backed similar anti-Taliban lashkars in Swat, Buner, Bajaur, Orakzai, Darra Adamkhel and other places. Such a policy has generally caused lot of bloodshed and sowed the seeds of turmoil. The Taliban have ruthlessly retaliated by sending suicide bombers to attack jirgas of tribal elders and clerics hostile to them in Darra Adamkhel, Bajaur and Orakzai or causing harm to anyone in sight and terrorizing entire villages as was the case in Shalbandai in Buner, Hayagai Sharqi in Upper Dir and Mandaldag in Swat where the late anti-Taliban commander Pir Samiullah had dared to raise a lashkar against them. The Shangla district, lacking a strong civil administration and police, had always been vulnerable to incursions by the militants. However, it never had a strong Taliban presence. Even now most of the Taliban fighters gathered in its Puran and Chakesar areas came from Swat and Buner or crossed over from the mountainous Kala Dhaka, or Torghar area, in Mansehra district. Shangla residents are now suffering and getting displaced due to the Taliban's decision to set up roadside checkpoints or use the district as a hideout for its retreating cadres. If pushed further, they would cross over to Kala Dhaka and Battagram, where the militants have recently carried out attacks against the police and exploded bombs. Other parts of Mansehra district including Shinkiari and Oghi too have experienced terrorist strikes as part of the fallout of the situation in Swat, Buner and Shangla. Kohistan, another district of Hazara, could meet the same fate as a few hundred Kohistani militants operating in Swat's Kalam and Bahrain tehsils have reportedly returned home to escape an onslaught by the security forces. They may not sit idle for long and some of them could become active upon receiving instructions from their commanders, who presently are in disarray. Though Malakand Agency is part of Malakand division, it didn't fall into the category of the Taliban-infested Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts where active military operations were planned. However, the militants have struck a few times in Malakand Agency, where the poorly-armed and trained Malakand Levies were deployed until now to provide a semblance of security to the people. The main road to Swat and rest of Malakand division passes through the Malakand Agency and curfew has to be frequently imposed to protect military convoys using the Mardan-Malakand-Chakdarra-Mingora road. The militants are finding it tempting to attack the army convoys using this busy road. Though there is controversy regarding the recent incident in Sakhakot, a town in Malakand Agency, in which the army says the detained TNSM leaders Maulana Mohammad Alam and Amir Izzat Khan were killed along with a soldier in an attack by the militants, it nevertheless showed the vulnerability of the troops to such attacks on this critical route. By the way, the government would have to do a lot more to clear the doubts regarding the killing of the two TNSM leaders, who were in custody of the security forces and hadn't been charged for any crime. The uncertainty about the whereabouts of the TNSM head Maulana Sufi Mohammad also needs to be cleared because the death and detention of Islamic leaders waging peaceful struggle for Shariah could complicate matters and push their followers to join forces with the Taliban. More worrying are the Taliban incursions into districts outside Malakand division. Mardan is the prime target for the Taliban due to its proximity to both Buner and Swat. As host of the biggest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) both in and outside the camps, it has received its share of disguised militants waiting for an opportunity to strike back at the security forces and law-enforcement agencies. The recent attack, which employed the classic guerilla tactic of planting and exploding an improvised explosives device (IED) to target a military convoy and then ambushing the troops and police sent as reinforcements, on the Rustam-Buner road showed how crucial has Mardan district become in tackling the militants and stabilizing Buner as well as Swat. Up to 10 soldiers and cops were killed in this attack, which explained how quickly the Swati and Buneri Taliban using local militants adapted themselves to the changed circumstances and planned and executed a deadly strike. Similar attacks could take place in Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera and even Peshawar, all part of the vast and fertile Peshawar valley where the battle against militancy and extremism is gradually shifting and where its fate could be eventually decided. In fact, the Peshawar valley is also facing fallout of the military action in the tribal areas of Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai and Darra Adamkhel. It is here that the political elite of the province lives and where the big army garrisons, seat of the government and the commercial hubs are located. By destabilizing the vale of Peshawar, the militants would be hoping to paralyze the government and consolidate their hold in Waziristan and other tribal areas in the south and in Malakand division in the north of the province. The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahimyusufzai @yahoo.com

Naseebo Lal and our sanctimonious hypocrisy

Ramblings of a relic Saturday, May 09, 2009 Omar A Khan Naseebo Lal is by far and away the most popular singer in Pakistan and has been so for the last ten years outselling the likes of Atif Aslam and Ali Zafar combined. She is unquestionably the only worthy and rightful successor to the throne that Madam Noor Jehan abdicated as the queen of Pakistani popular music and has achieved her success on the sole basis of her extraordinary talent unlike so many in this land who have clamoured to positions thanks to daddy’s membership at The Old Boys Club. Maybe it is only fitting and natural that an ex-colony should follow the example of the Victorian hypocrisy of its former masters or then perhaps it’s merely yet another symptom of the Taliban-inspired curse of intolerance that has led to Naseebo Lal and her sister Nooran Lal being silenced. A case has been lodged by Pakistan’s reincarnation of Anita Bryant and Mary Whitehouse in the LHC. The besieged singer is due to appear in court to defend charges of promoting 'obscenity, vulgarity and coarseness’ and has been denied a legitimate earning which is a travesty of the woman’s most basic human right. Why should Naseebo have to defend herself when she didn’t write any of the songs in question? Surely it is the lyrics that are the source of the ailment that apparently causes some weaker men to abandon their pious thoughts for more carnivorous ones? Someone has managed to relegate the countless injustices and obscenities that ravage our land in the form of hatred, intolerance, corruption and terror and find that extra reserve of zeal in order to persecute a singer who should actually be receiving the Pride of Performance award for her incredible talent. When the entire country is faced with the prospect of implosion it is mind-boggling that people can still find the time to crib over a bunch of songs with infantile lyrics about "juicy thirst quenching melons and shiny round ripe-ripe berries". It ought to be noted that nobody yet in history has died as a result of listening to a saucy song or indeed watching a 'thumka’ and one would have thought the LHC has rather more important issues to deal with. One of Pakistan’s most celebrated icons is Madam Noor Jehan who in her day sang numerous numbers at least as suggestive or "vulgar" as anything Naseebo Lal has recorded. Why not lodge a case against the deceased Noor Jehan, exhume her corpse and drag her dead bones to court and make her family answer for her vulgar, coarse and sinful songs? Essentially Naseebo’s songs, like Madam’s and Naheed Akhtar’s before her, contain all the essential ingredients of Punjabi movie song-writing since the 60s up until the current era; there flows much Kachcha Doodh while juicy ripe melons and round-round bursting berries are in plentiful supply and lassi, cream and butter churned in copious quantities while juicy ripened virgin mangoes await plucking from slender twigs. A typical Lollywood verse might read "the fresh milk has been churned to a frothy cream which you can whip to form a smooth hot butter". If all else fails in life there may still be hope of eking out a living in the wasteland that is current Lollywood writing clandestine 'masala’ numbers -- songs that ludicrously but perfectly reflect the pseudo-Victorian age that we live in complete with double standards of the truly obscene and vulgar kind. Pakistani society epitomes hypocrisy and though we claim to be the leading light of righteousness in the universe, the fact remains that life in the social welfare states of infidel Scandinavia is undoubtedly truer to the essence of Islam than in those regions obsessed with rituals, jingoism and hysteria. Remarkable that in such dire times when our nation itself is at stake we should find the time to target the ridiculously daft double entendre songs of Naseebo Lal while remaining oblivious to the fact that all sorts of real porn is readily found being peddled all over Pakistan. A 14-year-old can stroll down to one of the many pirated DVD shops in any market in any of our cities and lay their hands on explicit porn without any problem at all. In Pakistan we download more pornography off the net than almost all nations of the world barring a couple of fellow Muslim members of the ulema brotherhood. There is much in Pakistan that is indeed obscene; the disparity between the rich and the masses, the lack of justice, the VIP set, bonded labour, honour killing, the lack of funds allocated to education and the excessive amounts splurged on the armed forces, levels of corruption and the list could go on and on and on. The very issue of defining obscenity is fraught with pitfalls and if you start banning one song then you set in motion a slippery slope that would render most songs and thus most popular music and indeed literature worthy of a ban. Secondly, where do you draw the line, at melons or at apples? At the recently aborted Shanakht Festival in Karachi, was the picture that caused all the hoopla truly 'obscene’ or was it a delightfully depicted satirical caricature of the way Pakistani political history has unfolded over the years? Was pony-tailed, dungaree-wearing Nazia Hasan singing "Dil Ko Dil, Badan Ko Badan Har Kisiko Chahiye Tan Ka Milan" any less obscene than Naseebo Lal singing about her melons and butter? Does it really matter? Apparently the censor board is also being summoned by the LHC to explain how such evil songs have been allowed but what about previous boards? Should they not also be hauled up to explain how they certified the Pashto masterworks of the 90s or the blood-stained Sultan Rahi massacres of the 80s? How so that Naseebo Lal should be restricted from earning a living while transvestite Nawazish Ali can pout and flirt innuendos into the wee hours? Multi-award-winning Naheed Akhtar should likewise be summoned to court to explain some of the numbers she recorded during her reign in the 80s. Incidentally Finders Keepers, a highly reputable UK-based record label, has just released a collection of Lollywood gems, including the stunning Akthar number "Kadh le Kadh le we Kadh le" along with Madam Noor Jehan’s epic "Saab Ji Very Sorry". The CD called "The Sounds of Wonder" is receiving some very positive reviews in the UK press and has just been nominated as The Compilation Record of the Year at the upcoming Mojo Music Awards – Britain’s Music Oscars. There is a practical solution to all this which would free the courts from having to deal with such trivialities and the whims of attention-seekers. The answer would be to classify films for public consumption like there exists in most countries of the world. The more adult-oriented films, perhaps the ones containing the racy songs -- ought to be classified as such while music CDs and cassettes ought to have a warning label if containing material that might be offensive to those whose pristine morals are likely to be shocked by songs about the occasional ripened melon. Sadly Jack and Jill went up the Hill may have to be abolished for obvious reasons. The fact remains that in Karachi’s infamous Rainbow Centre and many of its kind you can procure the vilest level of pornography being sold like fruit and vegetables often by children who already have developed a chilling understanding of the words 'animals’, 'children’ and 'rape’. Wherever there is a demand for something in a land as lawless as Pakistan, there will be a supply made available and pornography is in abundant supply and dirt cheap. Ironically many of those who sit at stalls manning heaps of smut will be the first to haul down their shutters and pull out the cap upon hearing strains of the azaan and then five minutes later it is back to business again. It ought to be mentioned that watching an Indian film that has not been certified by the Pakistani Censor Board is a punishable offence and those of you who watched Om Shanti Om for example should actually be dragged off to court for committing a serious crime. Penalizing Naseebo Lal in any manner for any of the songs she has recorded will be a step towards institutionalising double standards and hypocrisy as well as a further capitulation to the insidious cancer of Talibanisation. If this does come to pass Naseebo Lal ought to consider shifting to a society that values talent rather than one that persecutes it. Incidentally ever wonder why so much porn is available in Pakistan? The answer is really quite simple – because there is an insatiable appetite and demand for it. By the way Naseebo Lal’s songs are increasingly available on iTunes, so even if the powers that be play the court jester, her music will live on. The writer is a filmmaker and entrepreneur. Email: omar@bubonicfilms.com