Musharraf’s Coup - Seven Years Later

#41 one interesting thing in microcredit lending is - the poor have turned out to be better credit risks than the rich. and the most beautiful sight i ever saw in my life was in the rural huts in bangladesh where bright-eyed and confident look in women borrowers talked business while their husbands took care of the children in the background. someone once called the grameen bank to be the single most original idea to emerge from asia in the past millenium - and i think he was right. although gandhi`s concept of non-violence is a close contender, i believe.

Re: # 42 & 43,

Ahmedbhai,

It feels great that a man from our region got the recognition of Nobel proportions.
Dr. Younis gave impetus to economic thinking in Bangladesh and relegated this fundamentalist thinking aside. Though Bangladesh was not a case state of fundamentalism but there were anxious mements of her history of those people taking over. Btw, I had been to Dhaka once and found Dhaka to be a place no different from Indian Bengal.

Perhaps it`s in the blood of Bengalis the gene that makes them good economists. We have Amartya Sen for India and now Dr. Yunis for Bangladeh, though Sen claims that he`s half-Indian and half-Bangladeshi. Thouth I asked several columnists of Pakistan as to why Dr. Yunis Saleem is not a national hero but a war monger like Dr. AQ KHan is; there was a deathly silence. Later I found out that he`s not a mainstream Muslim.

I hope Pakistan shud come out of that mire and claim its position as a progressve nation.

#41 pakistan has adapted the grameen model quite successfully with some minor differences. differences between the pakistan and bangladesh programs are: 1. the average loan size is higher in pakistan; 2. investments in rural infrastructure (rural roads e.g.) accompany micro-credit operations in a given area. grameen isnt the only microcredit lender anymore, and another NGO (BRAC) is i think almost as vast as grameen (several hundred million dollars worth of microcredit lending each). other countries in asia, africa, latin america and -surprise! - north america (in chicago as i recall) have adopted this model as well, adapted of course to local conditions.

i met dr. younis a couple of times, once in his office in dhaka. he had a modest office (though even back then it was a billion dollar operations bank), firm in his views and modest in his demeanor. i cannot think of a more deserving nominee for recognition.

{``Musharraf and his generals are determined to stay in power. They will protect the source of their power – the army. They will accommodate those they must – the Americans. They will pander to the mullahs. They will crush those who threaten their power and privilege, and ignore the rest. No price is too high for them. They are the reason Pakistan fails. ``}

Mr. Hoodbhoy

Your article is a well-written and hard-hitting indictment of the failures of the current military dictatorship. You have listed the failures and even assigned responsibility as you should. You have articulated the dismal performance of this regime:

Caving in to Mullahs
Catering to Americans
Emphasis on personal interests of military leaders
Pusillanimous performance on repeal of the Hudood and anti-blasphemy nonsense
Blunders in NWFP and Baluchistan
Reversal of the right course on religion in passports

To these, I would have added:

Lack of self-respect
Dissolution of national spirit
Short-term planning or rather panic-based strategy
Encouragement of provincialism and divisiveness
Utter ridicule of Islam and its more important principles
...and many others.

Unfortunately, what you have thoroughly missed is any hint of alternatives, solutions, or even suggestions. You forget the state of the nation in October, 1999. You neglect to consider the performance of the twice ``democratically-elected`` reigns of Benazir and Nawaz Sharif for a total of four miserable, devastating, and mercifully shortened terms. Musharraf is no Ataturk and there is no Erdogan in Pakistan.

#38 by hamidm2
No bubble burst. I know all what you have written.
Living Penniless is how he describes his life in USA. Maybe, he did noot want to avail family fortune. Writers are a little askewed anyway.

and you are right about his schooling & supporting Rushdie...but, unlike Rushdie, his wistful lament for the glorious past remains.

hamidm2:36

I always knew that somewhere deep inside you that sentinentalist is still alive & kicking...
the one who utters: ``then why can`t they eat cake``.

I personally know some of those who were recipients of Fullbright & Macarthur foundation
scholarship. I have a signed copy of John McArthur`s ( Harper`s Editor I admire) book as well.


Mr. Orhan Pamuk lived even under much more spartan conditions as Mr. Masadi. In his own words, Mr. Pamuk, was penniless (whatever that means) for 3 years. Now that he has won something all his past fair-weather-friends are emerging from the woodworks.

Mr. Masadi just might hit it big one day, but it should always be a natural birth rather than a caesarian or abortion. Edison lived in penury and exprimented & `failed` a 1000 times before finding the filament. He could have easily gone for a safe & secure but mundane job as a technician and boasted of his millions.

But his ``poverty`` is still making the corporate-thuGGs immensely & vulgarly rich even today.

P.S: Ironically Orhan Pamuk is appears very sad & disturbed by the erosion of the traditional & historically grand Turkey and that it is fast-forwarding itself into Westernism.
On a practical level he favours Turkey joining EU.

Re: # 37

echo,

..... i hae to burst your bubble but Orhan Pamuk belongs to a very wealty and very very secular istanbul family .......... he graduated from the tota-maina and secular american robert college in istanbul before studying architecture and journalism ...........

...... he is also a friend to salman rushdie .....

do people remember the article hoodhbhoy wrote after the earthquake in which he was fantasizing that govt would screw things up which would result in lots of people dying which in turn would cause an soviet-style uprising which would result in the disbandment of the country? reality turned out a little different. earthquake, the tragedy it was, gave an opportunity to the country to demonstrate what could be achieved with a collective will to succeed. even goras are now recognising the effort.

Bloomberg.com

Pakistani quake relief effort efficient, impressive: UN official

``ISLAMABAD, Oct 9, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Briefing a review meeting on the
quake recovery plan for Pakistani quake-hit areas, a UN country coordinator has
said the relief effort was efficient and impressive, according to a UN statement
released here Monday.

``As much as the earthquake was upsetting, its aftermath was uplifting,`` said Jan
Vandemoortele, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, quoted by the
statement.

...The humanitarian coordinator paid tribute to the Government of Pakistan for
their swift response and cooperation with international community to provide
life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of survivors, said the
statement...``

The United Nations ``pay homage to the victims and tribute to the courage and
resilience of the survivors,`` it said.

#33 by hamidm2

If you were not a comic I would have issued a fatwa on your fingers long time ago...

For those who are humour repaired its fine..

but for humour impaired..

Watch out!

---

Re: # 34

echo,

did you know that the fulbright program is funded by an appropriation made by the united states congress to the department of state - about 150 million annually ........... maybe you can help your friend masadi get a slice of that cheese ............

#30 what are gibbering about?? having trouble writing a straight sentence??

and bad news not just for mullah hate, but for whiny masadi as well - vanderlbilt university was founded by the ultimate of masadi`s ``evil us elite``, commodore vanderbilt (US railway tycoon of the late 19th century).

#28 by hamidm2

I can understand the Ghulam-i-Hamidm2 @29 having comprehension skills ( now certfied by all here) but not you. You obfuscate yes! but seldom you let your slip show that you are a Ba Ba
Blacksheep. Your english is O.K, inspite of your english-medium.


So again:from 25

The basic grounding is required upto age 10; after that no matter where one gets the ``higher`` education one can never ever become Ba Ba Blacksheep. Jinnah, Iqbal, Faiz, Salaam, Edhi are just the obvious examples

Re: # 30

echoboom,

you are right : ``The basic grounding is required upto age 10`` ....... i finished the koran at the age of 10 and finished it again at the age of 12 ......... luckily, my early `education` did not cause any permanent damage ........ jazak al-lah khair !

Re: # 33 by hamidm2 on October 13, 2006 7:22am PT

Hello Hamid:

So the mullah brigade almost got you. Have you ever wondered why is it that mullahs always want a young brain to indoctrinate their values and philosophies?

{you are right : ``The basic grounding is required upto age 10`` ....... i finished the koran at the age of 10 and finished it again at the age of 12 ......... luckily, my early `education` did not cause any permanent damage ........ jazak al-lah khair !}

No wonder then that we get so many fundoos in the Islamic world. And then when they grow up as an adult, we expect these idiots to understand the inner workings of their government.

We are left with the likes of that vibrating-mad-mullah-o-crat around the globe.

Respectfully submitted,

#28 dont tell echoboom this (since he may need an extra dose of lithium), but younus is the worst nightmare of the fundos in bangladesh. ha! ha!