17 August 1988 fuzair: good to see you back on chowk.

what you write about Zia's personal life is the same as what a late uncle of mine (who was Zia's roommate when they were junior officers) also confirmed - i.e. he did not hang out at the officers mess with other officers and was given to saying his prayers. nor did my uncle ever mention Zia drinking.

Save Me From Charismatic Leaders! DM bhai: The secret to being "charismatic" is to give hope of a better future.

Some political leaders provide hope by making empty promises. Examples include ZAB and his empty promise of "roti, kapra or makan", Lenin and his empty promise of a "workers paradise", Nasser and his empty promise of "pan-Arabism", Musharraf and his empty promise of a "return to democracy".

Other political leaders provide hope by making promises they have the intention and the ability to actuall deliver on: Examples include Ataturk who salvaged a viable nation from the "sick man of europe", Jinnah who created Pakistan, Nehru who laid the foundation ("western education", stable civilian governments) for India's "tryst with destiny". If Nawaz Sharif continues down his current path of standing firm on the promise of "democratic politics" and the "rule of law" he may well end up joining the ranks of such truly "charismatic leaders".

Coming to Obama - not only is he making many right promises (improved communication with all nations, more emphasis on education, improved healthcare), they are also realistic ones. More important, these promises define his priorities.
As for McCain, he isnt making any promises other than some pretty stupid ones - staying in Iraq for a 100 years. And now he is trying to pick up some vague kind of "charisma" by picking a youthful woman as his VP.

Faith and Religion #66 in that case Murad bhai's philosophy does not smell like a rose. :-(

Faith and Religion #64 eklavya: does murad sahib worship saints? i must have missed that reading his article.

Faith and Religion #58 eklavya bro: you can call it whatever. a rose by any name would smell as sweet. :-)

cheers!

Faith and Religion Eklavya bhai: I wasnt too sure what you meant. I therefore read Murad Baig's article - he seems to be saying something I can subscribe too, i.e. the hell with religious priesthoods (in all religions) and let us see religion as what it was when presented by the various founders.

Thus, e.g., jesus did not preach original sin or his own divinity. this bs came later. similarly for all religions.

I think he is on the mark when he writes this. And being on the mark, he is no doubt causing severe agony to the followers of priests and other hoodlums.

Faith and Religion murad beg: since when is islam an "organized religion"? where is the pope, the clergy? no doubt mullahs would like to make it one - but that hasnt happened in 14 centuries and is not about to happen.

In Memory of Ahmed Faraz " has interesting story lines like Ramayana or Mahabharatha. "

hindu nuts must be truly desperate to turn a board dedicated to a poet a place to do their propaganda.

How real is your politik? Senor Cheema: Si, Senor Cheema. En un ritmo lento pero estable. Buenos Noches en Australia, Senor.

How real is your politik? #193 Mr. Masadi: Guten Morgen, Mein Freund.

Not really.

Have a nice day.

How real is your politik? #192 Mr. TN(and Partially)I Masadi: Bon Jour once again, Mon Ami.

How placing responsibility for the coup on the general conducting the coup (and that too simply to contradict Field Marshall Bulleye's contention that it is lawyers and politicians that are force these innocent generals to break the law) makes me a peon of the West requires a level of logic that is beyond the ability of a mere mortal like myself to comprehend.

As for "structural" reasons, I could discuss these until you are ready to cry out in emotional distress - but surely every post I write does not have to be a treatise on the Theory of Everything in order to pass your stringent quality control standards.

How real is your politik? mr.masadi #191: Buenos Dias, Amigo.

You call that counterexample I provided of my good experience with US police "defective". The reasons you provide are splitting hairs, imho. If you so easily invalidate my experience (which I described at length) while claiming yours is valid (while barely sketching it out), then that I have carried the can as far as I can.

You say you had other bad experiences as well. As I mentioned earlier, I had other good experiences as well - not just with the police being there when I needed them, but also when I broke the law myself. (In case you are wondering what these were, these were moving violations like overspeeding or not stopping at a stop sign. Nothing exciting like robbing banks with a beautiful accomplice as in Bonnie and Clyde, nor worshipping little white guys from outer space as you would imagine, nor even hijacking a freight train from Fort Knox as Hamidm.).

How real is your politik? #186 Mr. Masadi: Good day to you too.

You indicated below a bad experience to back your negative views concerning US police, so I provided you with a good experience with this woman cop who went above and beyond the call of duty to back my positive views concerning the same.

You now provide a HRW report that says to back your negative views, and this report says "While the proportion of repeatedly abusive officers on any force is generally small, responsible authorities including law enforcement supervisors, as well as local and federal government leadership often fail to act decisively to restrain or penalize such acts."

This report by no means contradicts what I said. I am not saying the US police is perfect by any means - all I said was that it does its important job in society in ways that is an example to police in other countries. Try calling police emergency lines in the US and try calling them in Pakistan. I think you will know what I mean.

How real is your politik? #188 your "four reasons" could be found in virtually any democracy in the world, including india.

you missed one reason that anyone with an ounce of common sense would realize is most directly relevant to Pakistan today, and one which places responsibility where it belongs for overthrowing governments, namely lawless generals.

How real is your politik? #182 you even sound like Altaf Bhai with your foul language. And spare me your threats of "joining the mqm". and as for masadi's "intellect", i may not agree with him on everything, but spare me the implication that you are at a higher intellectual plane than him or anyone else. this is typical of the hollow chest beating of you mqm losers who fool no one anymore after May 12.

How real is your politik? Mr. Masadi: Like you, I too decided to trust a police officer once. This was many years ago (jab ghalib jawan thha) when I was invited by a fellow student to visit her farm in New Hampshire. It was pitch dark (just like the interior of Mr. Hamidm's cranium) when I reached the designated spot she was to pick me from. Alas, my friend was not there. Then I spotted a bar nearby. So, I walk into the bar, and there were a few stout young fellows having their pint (or gallon, perhaps). I tell them of the troubles I was seeing, and one of them gets up and tells me to come with him. Wondering if my paper thin wallet and myself were going to part company soon, I nonetheless followed him. We step out to the dark street and there...(insert sound of that weird musical instrument called the theramin playing horror movie tunes, please!!)..., standing like a flying saucer belonging to the Intergalactic Planet Enslavers is..is...A COP CAR!!! (insert sound of crowds shrieking).

Man looked into the car and says "I believe this is the foreign student you were inquiring about." From inside the cop car the comes the crackle of radio and then a female voice says "Subject found".

What happened after that is too horrible to relate. But, let me summarize quickly since I have to do. In no time, I was inside the car with a very nice looking young policewoman, she told me there had been some confusion and so my host had asked the police for help in finding me. Soon we were on the highway headed for the farm. The farm was pitch dark (..theramin..). The policewoman told me that she would wait until my hosts showed up. And so we sat in that desolate place, this young policewoman and myself, discussing the meaning of life and other profound things. Soon, headlights appeared and my hosts were back and all was explained.

Before discussing the meaning of life, this policewoman had told me that she was in fact off-duty. She had in fact voluntarily gone above and beyond the call of duty to save a foreign student the distress of being by himself in a strange town.

And I could relate a few other incidents where the cops were there when I needed them in the US.

So - Mr. Masadi - dont go around badmouthing the fine US police force just because they checked your license plates. Just hope that police forcs all over the world can catch up with their standards of public service.