Prayer

Prayer is the humble expression of one's desires and aspirations carried out with utter humility. The action is recognized by the universal supervisory system and natural selection takes effect. It has nothing to do with religion.

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https://www.facebook.com/insider.pk/photos/a.212847215395779.64624.200661876614313/529569380390226/?type=1

Translation:
Innocent Liba affected by drone attack poses a question to the Pakistani public:
My countrymen, am I less lovable than Malala, or is my patriotism suspect?
Then why did nobody speak for me? Is it because America the brave is responsible for my condition?

PEC Elections

PEC elections are due to be held on 14th June, 2015.
In the past when postal balloting was held, I was often approached by engineers affiliated to political parties to hand over the unmarked ballot papers to them so that they might mark all the candidates affiliated with their parties and get credit from their leaders. I never obliged, although many others did.
Since last time, polling booths are being set up for direct balloting and various allegations of rigging have been made.
This year in Karachi with about 40,000 voters in a population of about 20 million 10 polling stations have been set up, of which two are located in the Sindh Assembly Building which is not accessible to general public. Apparently these polling stations are for the few privileged engineers who are also members of the provincial assembly, which seems to be a deplorable abuse of privilege.
There are also murmurs being heard that the polling stations in the Sindh assembly will be used to round up ballot papers from interior Sindh and have them marked and and cast under the direct supervision of ruling party bosses.
It will be interesting to see the detailed balloting results assuming that they will not be rigged.
Why can't the Engineering Council be left out of state politics. Does the Engineering profession have to be brought to the same level of corruption as mainstream politics?

Myanmar Massacre – 2

Nearly two years ago in April, 2013 I wrote a short blog on the massacre of Muslims in Myanmar. Unfortunately, nobody took notice of it. Recent reports indicate that the scale of atrocities has increased and the situation can be rightly termed as genocide and ethnic cleansing. The following are the latest images circulating on the social media:

One would have thought that not only compassionate Muslims but also conscientious Buddhists from  countries with substantial Buddhist populations would have come forward to mitigate the sufferings of the innocent human beings being subjected to abject baseness in Myanmar. Now there are tens of thousands of people meandering in the seas being turned away from every port of refuge.

However, there is another angle to the situation. How do you think the survivors of this genuine holocaust are going to feel towards humanity? With utter hatred and obsession to revenge? Aren’t we breeding a new creed of terrorists? 

The Virtue of ISIS

The world today seems to be seized with the menacing events taking place in the Middle East in the name of ISIS. Unfortunately, this seems another example how misinformed politicians and military men have botched up and made a complete mess of a noble idea.

The movement called ISIS, as the very name Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seems to have started to unite Iraq and Syria into a single Islamic Republic. Historically they have been parts of a greater Islamic empire and most of the troubles of the people of both countries seem to have started after their separation, specially the religious sectarian persecution.

Let us see what will be religious distribution of a united ISIS Republic. The table below gives a heartening picture:

Country	Total Million	Sunni %	Shia  %	Christian %	Other  %	Sunny Million	Shia  Million	Christian Million	Other Million
Syria	18	74	12	10	4	13.32	2.16	1.8	0.72
Iraq	36	33	62	4	1	11.88	22.32	1.44	0.36
Total	54	47	45	6	2	25.2	24.48	3.24	1.08

Form the above table it is obvious that the union of Iraq and Syria will constitute a viable country with nearly equal populations of Shias and Sunnis, while the 8% minorities will hold the balance of power. It would be a workable democracy with little chance of anyone being persecuted on religious grounds.

It would be a good idea if the demonization of ISIS and the inhuman military activities are stopped and diplomatic efforts are made to bring the leaders of Iraq, Syria and the ISIS to form a Democratic Islamic State. The name and the capital will indeed be issues that can be resolved by decent negotiations.

The United Nations has a good opportunity to do at least once what it was created for.

Random Thoughts 150324

He-man = A man who wins over the woman he likes, but does not yield to the woman who likes him. (In the current Western perspective you can read man or woman instead of woman)

Israel = The last remnant of the Colonial era.

ISIS = Latest ploy of American Shale oil manufacturers to maintain turmoil in the middle east and
keep the price of petroleum up. (The idea of uniting Iraq and Syria into a single democratic state having balanced populations of Shias and Sunnis is not a bad one.)

Terrorism = One sided war; attack by armed persons on unarmed persons.

Yohannabad = Baptism in blood and fire. Has the anti-Christ appeared?

Marriage

Marriage is a socio-legal process by which a man and a woman acquire exclusive rights on one another's body, but the souls remain free.

Some Thoughts

1.     Miracles can be made to happen

2.     ‘We’ is always better than I.

3.     Nobody is better than anybody else.

4.     All colors combine to make white.

5.     Everyone has something to give

6.     A free man is one who governs himself.

Charlie Hebdo and I

“Charlie Hebdo first appeared in 1970 as a successor to the Hara-Kiri magazine, which was banned for mocking the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle.^[10] In 1981 publication ceased, but the magazine was resurrected in 1992.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo)

The planned act of violence of January 7, 2015 in which 12 people including 9 Charlie Hebdo staff members, one guest and two policemen were gunned down in Paris by two armed assailants was indeed a ghastly crime. It shook the world and some 40 heads of state flew into Paris to condole the incident.  But compared with the carnages that occur frequently in Peshawar and Karachi at the hands of religious fanatics of the same genre. it was a walk in the park. The December, 2014 terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar in which over 130 pupils and teachers were gunned down in cold blood did not seem to cause any stir in the world.

Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 CE in Makkah and Islam started when he was 40 lunar years old or about 609 CE. In the last 1406 years there has not been a single incident in which a Muslim has abused or ridiculed the Bible or the Torah or Jesus or Moses. Their names are taken with respect by all Muslims. In fact Muslims even treat Budha, Confucious and the Hindu avatars with a degree of deference. However the response of the followers of other religions has been disappointing to say the least. There is a whole history behind it.

The ridicule of Prophet Muhammad was started by the Christians, Jews and pagans of Makkah as soon as his message became known. The European compilers of the Bible didn’t shrink from putting in snide remarks about Ismail son of Abraham who is claimed by the Arabs of Makkah to be their forefather. In recent times such western intellectuals as Voltaire and Dante have exceeded all limits of decency in their criticism of Islam and Prophet Muhammad. The illustrations contained in Dante’s Inferno are simply outrageous from any standards.

It seems that Western civilization and decency have become conditioned to such vulgarities against Islam. How come that in a society where people get jailed for denying the Holocaust, mocking the king or queen or the death of a president are not questioned about their activities that clearly incite hatred on the basis of religion and race?

We accept that there is small number of people in the Muslim world who are intellectually locked in the 7^th Century and want to change the world to resemble the state of affairs of that time and efforts are being made to contain the effects of their errant thinking. The question is: are there similar people in the Western world who are intellectually locked in the “middle ages”?  If so, are they a small minority or an overwhelming majority?

The following picture shared on facebook seems to be a fair representation of the popular following of the leaders who assembled in Paris to demonstrate solidarity with vulgarity.

Seven Years ago

Reproduced below is a blog I wrote exactly seven years ago with comments in today’s perspective.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Vox Populi

During the past few days I have overheard the following conversation between people at public places in Karachi:

1.                 How can an order issued by the Chief of Army Staff be applicable to anyone other than army personnel? Why do the Civil Administration and Judiciary take notice of such orders? (They would obey the Devil’s orders if it benefits them personally.)

2.                 How can a civil servant of grade 17 issue a document titled “Statutory Regulatory Order” on Government of Pakistan letter head in defiance of the acts of parliament, budgetary allocations and constitutional provisions?  (Because the parliament is a rubber stamp of fixed elections.)

3.                 How can the army that holds the people and institutions of Pakistan in such contempt be expected to give its blood to defend them? (It is doing it in spite of the spite.)

4.                 All of Pakistan’s problems can be solved by getting rid of about 600 top civil servants, an equal number of politicians and about 200 top military officers. (Who bells the cat? Only a mass uprising such as the Chinese, French or Iranian Revolution can do that.)

5.                 Pervez Musharraf has not been able to find a general in the Pak army suitable to be appointed as COAS in the last five years, will he import one now? (He was ignoring people with merit to keep his powers.)

6.                 Pervez Musharraf is needed to maintain political stability in Pakistan. (In or out of prison?)

7.                 Benazir Bhutto in spite of being a democratic icon has no political program or economic policy; she will only fuel further corruption if brought to power. (As one PPP leader said they sacrificed her to gain power and corruption is their right.)

8.                 Nawaz Shrif initiated the economic policies in his first term which are still being followed, but he has a dictatorial streak and may again annoy his colleagues who may again conspire with the army to overthrow him. (It seems that he has formed a new private unlimited company with his family and corrupt friends called the government of Pakistan.)

9.                 Is Nawaz Sharif the Saudi candidate for premiership or USA’s possible alternative to Benazir? (Or the successful candidate of Riggers united?)

10.             What is the formula to empower the poor who are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer? (Most people would say vote for Imran Khan in the next elections whenever they are held.)

God help us.