The Height of Higher Education

Re: # 30

Good point!

However, the reality is that before Masadi even get to that stage, he will have to justify his Muslim credentials to those, who will question whether he is even a Muslim or not.

Ciao

#31, you don`t even know what my point is. I suggest you go back and read my posts. I am well aware of how education works in Pakistan, that has nothing to do with the point I was trying to make.

learning about Islam through a course in a univ. is one thing.
taking the compulsory course `Islamiyat` (or `Islamic studies`) in a pakistani univ. (or for that matter in a secondary or higher secondary school) is quite another.
mr. masadi, it seems you are unaware of how things work in the educational institutes in pakistan.
all aspects of teaching: the teachers, the syllabus, the books, are in dire need of reform.

#25 by masadi on June 2, 2006 6:28am PT

comrade masadi..

In America, you would publish and article titled ``Is the Koran amazing or what?``

IN saudi arabia, even an Islamist nut like you would have to go with the title ``The Koran is amazing.``

Technically, it`s only punctuation...a question mark in the first case and a period in the second case..but it says a lot about Islamic tolerance of ideas..

#28 by jamesmaxwell writes <<< Re: # 25
Sir, your arguments are more comical than logical>>>

Very well, have a good laugh and linger on in your pathetic ignorance.

Re: # 25
Sir, your arguments are more comical than logical!

In #25, when I mention former and latter, I refer to manto`s post

<<< Actually Masadi... strict adherence to ideology as in the case of Muslims and the corporate dictates as in the case of America are equally bad for education. >>

By the way, who are the chowk editors these days. I would like to politely find out why 3 of my recently submitted articles have all not been published. Thank you.

#23 jamesmaxwell writes << Try criticising Islam in an Islamic country. If the state does not kill you, the lynch mobs will. >>

Why the state will try to kill someone is because the message he is ``talking about`` is atleast getting out to the people, unlike this system where the corporate elite dominate the media airwaves and alternative voices get almost nowhere. Like talking to a wall, an invisible wall of censorship, where wealth and power determines whose voice gets heard. I can talk to a wall all day and night long in any Muslim country and go about my happy business as well.

#21 manto, education circumscribed by capital is more harmful than any narrow ideology (though both are harmful as I mention in my post) because it tries to cannabalize every aspect of life, turning everything human into an object, unlike religion that cannot possibly reach to those levels. That is why any ``real`` education will benefit the former more than the latter

#18 by jamesmaxwell on June 1, 2006 3:32am PT


Marx`s saying, ``Religion is the opium of the people`` applies very well to Pakistan.


Cult: small unpopular religion
Religion: large popular cult.

nuff said...

Re: # 20
In America you can speak out against the injustices of America`s capitalist system, the greed of America`s corporate managers, the neo-con architects of America`s hypocritical foreign policy, the idiocy of Geroge Bush and whatever else you dislike about America. The US Constitution guarantees your freedom to think and express your opinions.

Try criticising Islam in an Islamic country. If the state does not kill you, the lynch mobs will.

Islam is blind faith in the unknown that does not brook any criticism or questioning. Hence the pathetic state of the Ummah and the Ummahites.

Instead of doing reforms at the university level, the government should focus on the secondary level. Currently there are 5 different school systems running in Pakistan.

1) High School
2) GCE System
3) Urdu Medium; where english is taught from grade 6 onwards
4) English Medium
5) Madrassah System

If you take the example of a public university, where students from all the levels are studying then there will be huge difference between their intellectual levels. The urdu medium students maybe very sharp but due to the inferiority complex he will not be able to groom his abilities and finally causing frustation. I have studied in University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore. It is i think one of the few good institutes left in Pakistan that offer opportunities to students from all over Pakistan be it urban or rural and i have felt and observed this behaviour. It is a pity that we cannot come out of the British school system and develop our own educational curriculum. In the university, i read the same course of Islamic Studies that was taught to me in grade sixth. If you want to teach this Islamic Studies course, then it is better to exclude it altogether.

Actually Masadi... strict adherence to ideology as in the case of Muslims and the corporate dictates as in the case of America are equally bad for education.

The difference is that American Education System does not stop a person to read on his own initiative... therefore one can use libraries freely...

Re #18, Islam does not take away people`s ability to think, your allegation is just BS. People`s ability to think is taken away by corporatized education, the kind we see in the US, where there is absurdity and extremley profitable anarchy in production and consumption, where wars are being justified to the public with little or no opposition and the governemnt gets away with global bloody murder. Pakistan has many problems but its public is much more conscious than the US cheerful morons.

Re: # 4

In an evocative sense, I have not lost hope. In a real sense, I see no value in hope. Personally, I feel that there is still a scintilla of hope left, but the experience of reality which confronts me on a daily basis suggests that hope is for fools. Hope, in Pakistan for Pakistan, is meaningless unless we develop the necessary infrastructures and institutions, which will guard that fragile treasure and protect it. It is time that we stepped beyond clinging to hope and instead, it is time when we should breathe a new life into hope and actualize it into a tangible reality by a committment to this nation.

For the last 60 years, we have wished upon a hope in hope that hope will change our miserable present for a better future, but it did not; because we have to secure the future of this nation on some thing more solid than mere hope. If all the plans, which made in Pakistan for its development are taken into account, then this nation should be more advanced and better off than most of the nations in this world, including the developed one. Bill Milam, the former US ambassador was correct in his farewell address, when he said that Pakistanis ``live in the stars``. We have to come to reality and the reality of our nation is that its problems will not be solved by ``having hope`` but through serious pin-pricking of its flaws and faults.

This nation and its people need to be doused with an ice cold bucket of water in their faces and told to wake up from their dreams and look the reality of their existence in the face. This nation needs to be told over and over again of what is wrong with it and there can be no more luxury in Pakistan to spend our time in hope of a better future and that some how, this magical future will materialize on its own.

This nation will be saved and it might have re-birth, but hope will have nothing to do with it! :)

Ciao

Marx`s saying, ``Religion is the opium of the people`` applies very well to Pakistan. Pakistan`s elite does not want people to think critically and rationally, fearing that they will start asking awkward and difficult questions; give them a big dose of Islam and take away their ability to think.