14th August Rant

It is a mad bad world. It really is. There is nothing wrong and nothing right in this world. It is only so if we think of it as something good or bad. Similarly, nations are neither good nor bad. They strive to achieve some objectives, which may or may not be in the interests of other nations. Certainly, their actions might raise humanitarian alarm bells but nations do what other nations do; act out of national interests.

The Seljuks conquered Constantinople not because of some ancient prophecy but due to the power and prestige attached to city and how its subjugation could bring prosperity to the nomadic Seljuks and Turks. USA attacked Iraq and Afghanistan only out of national interests. It’s nothing personal or religious.  The same goes for the Israeli settlers on the west bank who backed by apartheid laws can encroach on Palestinian lands with impunity. And the same goes for the Palestinians who shoot and bomb those same settlers so that they can keep their lands safe. National Interest.

History is often murky and dark with facts that are often distorted, but that’s the reality. History is always written by the victor.

In the same way, Pakistan may have had its share of dark secrets, secrets that are better left untouched, disguised and classified. It is up to us that we build upon them and raise a Pakistan that can stand high in the comity of nations.

I find many people criticizing Pakistan, but critique of Pakistan must be allowed to some extent, not like the criticism hurled by our liberals and feminists. And, why this criticism should be curtailed? Because if the criticism reaches a level that is damaging to the national interests, then yes, it should be stopped. There is nothing wrong nor anything bad in putting curbs on free media. National Interests.

I said it earlier somewhere and I am going to say it again. Peace is nothing but a half time in the games of war that have been played ever since Abel and Cain’s fight and have been continuing ever since.  Yes, war is a good thing but not against fellow citizens. When it comes to your fellow citizens, engage in dialogue, dialogue, dialogue and only dialogue. Only if the citizen is anti-Pakistan then you might kick him in the jail for 30 years but don’t kill, he is still a fellow citizen. We should strive to make holding this state’s ID card a privilege. We really should.

Do you know why liberal always lose in this country? Because they are always smug, obnoxious, aloof from national affairs and highly unlike the normal populace. They are always arguing about bringing peace with India and neighboring countries but they always forget that nations always require an ‘evil’ entity that is against a nation’s existence. The presence of that evil ‘nation’ helps us to continue and give meaning to our survival in this large conglomeration of nations on the planet.

 These liberals always talk about concepts, which are very alien to an average Pakistani. Hence, I don’t think that liberals and feminists can bring a great change to this country. Change will be brought by moderates and conservatives, as traditionally, these two camps have always written history of this world, I don’t ever recount reading about a liberal changing the course of history.

Hence, we should learn to respect this great nation of ours. Be proud of it. It might have faults in it, but do remember that before America became a world power, it too was a land of robbers, had a great civil war in which more than 650000 people died, and its greatest city, New York, was more politically divided than Karachi and had more presidents shot before 1945 than Pakistan during its entire existence. So be proud of who you are. Doesn’t matter what you stand for or from where you belong, as long as you stand by what you say. And you say, with me that you are nothing else but a Pakistani. A Pakistani who is free to go to his/her temples, mosques or any place of worship.  Who believes in the rule of law and not political dictatorship!  The time to bring a change to this morbid status quo is upon us now. It is now or NEVER.

The WaterKit Bashing Contest - A crazy "Invention Given Undue Attention"‏

I am going to jump the bandwagon here and write the customary lines- that are now probably a prerequisite to being called an educated and reasonable person these days- Yes, Agha Waqar's “Waaater Kit” is a sham, the scientific equivalent of a cheeseburger genetically programmed to sing Frank Sinatra. Yes, it is absurd but does this absurdity really deserve the media limelight? Does it really deserve the attention of the brightest scientific minds in Pakistan? Let us explore this territory to find out where both the rational and irrational minds went wrong.

The case of the water kit sham is so atrociously irrational that Willy O Coyote might have used it to run after the roadrunner. But, the worrying point is not the support shown by some elements of the media but the constant coverage and attention shown by those social and electronic media outlets that are against such unscientific thoughts. So much attention was shown by these flag bearers of rationality that people like me began to wonder what grievous crime had Agha Waqar committed, the enormity of which was so much that it inspired more blogs and media discussions than PMLN’s attack on Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital. Every major blog and news outlet has been discussing about this water kit and that to me is a total waste of time.

It might be possible to jolt your memories (no pun intended) to remember a similar claim made by anengineer (Rehan Aziz Farooqi)  from  Swat who also claimed to run a generator from water using the electrolysis technique and that method too flew in the face of the accepted laws of thermodynamics but the question that arises here is that why didn’t that self-taught engineer get as much attention as Agha Waqar? Probably Agha Waqar happened to be more eloquent in presenting his invention or maybe he just got lucky and attracted the attention of both pro and con groups of the media and the scientific circles. It is incredible to see that how fiercely the rationals clashed with the irrationals, how the enthusiastically debated on issue that was a non issue as soon as it was reported; and how they lamented (non-stop) on the decrepitude of Pakistani scientific educational system, when they themselves have done so much for our educational system that today we have to watch ‘inventor’s like Agha Waqar on TV. An argument can be made that the ‘rational section’ of our media and society were vociferously  attacking Agha Waqar because they thought that the Pakistan’s ‘Awam’ would be tricked into believing in Mr. Agha’s ‘Hoax’ and that would be a cause of  embarrassment for the whole nation. It is indeed a noble cause but in my view totally pointless. Why do I utter such blasphemy? Because even if we assume that the Pakistani  populace is lead to somehow believe that the water kit car functions really well, then do we seriously expect that industrialists and scientists would be flocking en masse to Agha Waqar and production would actually begin on it? If that’s a rational thought then our rationality is at par with Agha Waqar’s scientific grounding.

But perhaps we as a nation are looking out for someone to vent out our frustrations upon. Even though those ‘bright minds’ have pronounced the ‘water kit’ as a sham but they haven’t come up with their own brilliant plan as well.  All everyone cares about is how well can they ridicule this person as if Agha Bashing was a point scoring contest. In the light of current Agha Bashing contest, I am inclined to believe that the Water Kit Sham was once against exploited by our media and given undue attention for what? Dare I suggest ratings?  It would be worthwhile for our media (both liberal and conservative) to focus on the achievements of Pakistanis that have been acclaimed for example, how much attention was given to a team of Pakistani students winning a debate competition in Mexico? At least it was much less than Agha Waqar’s miracle kit. It is my humble suggestion that we should be promoting success stories of Pakistan’s ‘real achievers’ in the same way that we are promoting Agha Waqar’s sham. If media attention was not given to this quackery, then it would have faded away quickly, but then unfortunately that doesn't make up a good spicy read does it?