The Ongoing IT Revolution and Security Implications for Pakistan i`d implore all to pick up the september issue of the atlantic monthly, and read the article on pakistan...the authour makes the argument that pakistan is a yugoslavia waiting to happen, with the added horror of nukes. i`d also note that the authour makes his argument without once mentioning pakistan vis-a-vis india. in other words, pakistan can and will fail all by itself.

maybe cats like that fool jay have a point when they say we, as pakis, attempt to gloss over the real troubles pakistan is facing. it is absurd, absolutely absurd, to imagine that an army of techies can help pakistan, with the real problems she faces.

re: sac`s impetus for writing the article

``We have never defined ourselves in our own right - only in relation to India. That is our tragedy.``

The Ongoing IT Revolution and Security Implications for Pakistan surely there are those who think it wouldn`t be such a bad idea if pakistan does become a vassal state of india. as long as they let us field our own cricket team. with all due respect to the horrors of war, etc., forcing wasim to open the bowling with srinath et al. would be a REAL tragedy.

Vignettes from a Short Trip to India bit of a naipaul fan, aren`t we? vidya had a detachment, though, that took the sting out of his overtly racist stuff.

Pakistan, India and the Spirit of Chowk just curious, if this article (the latest in a long line of many) was simply an experiment by rehan to ascertain the quality and quantity of the replies of an article that has no redeeming qualities on its own. a satire, if you will of the popular anti-whatever drivel pouring down the earnest highways and byways of chowk.

as satire, it is poignant. anything other than that, and it is sad.

Diary of a Moustache awwww, shooo shweet. best part about the story was the johnny nash song. didn`t donnie wahlberg, late of the new kids on the block, once say he loved chicks with big hairy moustaches?

the truly definititve question of our times, courtesy of slink:

``how do you feel about waxing in general?``

Pakistani undergrads in the US re: the always entertaining ylh

``Makes me wonder why if I decided to feel proud of my country all of a sudden I also became a Dumbo?``

you, sir, are not proud of your country. you use it to provide you an identity, which, for reasons of either immaturity or lack of intellect, you have not developed on your own yet.

true pride in one`s country means striving to emulate its true heroes, not attacking its imaginary enemies. it means trying to come up with solutions to your country`s faults, not turning a blind-eye to them, and, even worse, berating those who would point such deficiencies out to you.

``As for Rsaxena honestly more than you ... it is people like Feroze K etc who make me sick .....``

thank you for that bit of information, since, of course, the entire world revolves around who or what makes you sick.

``As for Rutgers I urge you to check your figures...``

yaar, for the love of God, country, whatever, let it go. rutgers is where i would send my servants if they made noise about wanting an education.

look, man, you seem to be a passionate chap. it`s just that you need to focus your energies in more constructive ways. it took many of us a while to deprogram from the paki educational system, but it can be done.

Pakistani undergrads in the US funny stuff. not terribly insightful, though, and i guess you didn`t mean it to be. it`s just that the same (with some slight revisions, of course) can be said about most foreign undergrads, esp as regards to class background.

re: ylh

``So whats your decision on me ...Am I in a league of my own?????``

indeed.

the self-involved, self-deceiving, cheerfully unaware narcissistic brownie with delusions of grandeur and an uncanny ability to convince oneself of one`s own importance. makes laughable attempts to equate some state school (suny, rutgers, ohio state) to the ivies. in years past, confined to languish in the student union with various peers (all meticulously chosen for their ability to make subject feel good about him/herself), now, with the internet, able to infiltrate newsgroups and discussion forums with half-baked ideas gleaned from frosh poli-sci courses.

To Western Women pure drivel, although I thank you for putting the `fun` back in fundamental.

isn`t wearing hijab also catering to ``the trap of man.`` (classic line, that).

Lahore is Bombay going through the replies, i`m quite shocked at the venom the indians and pakistanis are spouting at each other. i think we can agree that no one is going to change another`s mind, so can we get past the ``india/pakistan is better`` machismo? indeed, it`s actually embarrassing.

bugger the whole lot of you. from now on, i`m calling myself nepali.

Time for a fresh start sir, you are truly a voice of reason in unreasonable times...i`ve read ``the man who would be king`` and, in retrospect, it seems prophetic

for believers in fate, let it be noted that musharraf landed in karachi at 19:47 pakistan time. perhaps this is a good omen for the country; lord knows we need them.

Diary of a Coup why is that most non-pakistanis have denounced the coup, calling for a swift return to democracy, while most pakistanis have welcomed musharraf...an australian editorial said something like south asia was a diplomatic free-kick zone, where the west could hypocritically issue the standard knee-jerk condemnation of ``bad things`` like nuclear tests and military coups...could it be that many pakistanis have come to distrust democracy? the poor peasants that non-pakistanis rhapsodize about have had democracy since `88 and their plight is much worse for it. it is said the people get the leaders they deserve, but, truly, no one deserves the likes of bb and sharif. bb, who had the hopes of one million people greeting her upon her return from exile in 87 and who used that hope to mercilessly loot the country. nawaz ``the Queen is Dead, Long Live the King,`` who became power mad a decade later and even more brazenly turned the treasury into ittefaq`s personal financier while crushing even the whiff of opposition. both ``leaders`` had the democratic mandate of the people and tragically abused it...it is said sharif continued to play cricket every saturday at the lahore gymkhana despite pakistan`s decline to oblivion...nero fiddling as rome burned.

enter the army, the only respected institution left in the whole damn country. an article in time said the army has ruled pakistan for half its existence, and some would agree that it has been relatively the better half. pakistan zindabad indeed.

Fears of a Military Coup in Pakistan absent from news reports are any indication of what this chap Musharraf is about. can anyone provide insight as to his political leanings, if any, ideology, etc. (or is Sandhurst-trained description enough?)

His Gift wow. haven`t had so many english lessons since second grade language arts.

thanks djiin, you`ve done us all a service. you know, in some countries they kill your firstborn for incorrect usage of `that.`

now, premonitions really interest me. not the hard-core psychic in the story or prophet thing or whatever. like when the phone rings, and you know who it is before you pick it up. or you know when something terrible up is about to happen, that sinking feeling in your stomach. deja vu and all that.

is it some sort latent instinct left over from our ancestors, who really needed it to survive? maybe the mind is constantly calculating probablilities, so that when we do get a premonition, it is simply the most likely outcome of an event (who`s calling me?) as determined by our brain.

Information Revolution - Utopia or Bust? i think the emergence of a technocracy may be the most significant contribution of the information revolution. technology today intimidates the non computer owning, non engineering read ?average? person (still a majority of the American population).

at the beginning of the century, technology was seen as a means for social change and embraced as progress by the masses. today, however, technology is enigmatic except for those chosen few who understand it, and progress is seen by the masses as occurring outside of their sphere of existence.

future divisions among people will not be over class or race or ethnicity, but among those who have and can use information and those who can not. a corollary, then, may be that today`s hackers will be tomorrow?s revolutionary.

Close Encounters of the Musician Kind ``i can`t believe you told al roker to pull his pants up.``

Of Boylove and Boylovers man, you`ve got alot more stamina than i. the article, and ``debate`` have long since entered absurdity and, as such, that is the only way left to respond...

you win. i am convinced. is there some kind of persecuted pedophiliac fund i can donate money to? other than that, i will lobby my congressman for legislation re: a boylove day (summer is currently devoid of holidays...maybe something in august?)

if you will indulge me one last observation...

you have spent many thousands of (admittedly eloquent)words and countless hours trying to explain to us mere mortals the ascendancy of pedophilia, from quoting plato and shakespeare, to waxing poetic on the merits of the love that dare not speak its name.

yet all your paramour could come up with was ``burra mazza aya.`` i don`t know, that just kinda struck me.