Ripple Effect

The News, March 22, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Spying in America By Omar R. Quraishi When you read a title such as the one above you normally would think of the Soviets, now Russians, the North Koreans, the Iranians or the Cubans -- but would you ever think of the Israelis? Perhaps you should. Alternet (www.alternet.org) is an excellent internet resource for those who are interested in the latest news about America, Europe and indeed the rest of the world, something you cannot find in The New York Times, The Washington Post or Times. This past week, while trawling through the website, I came upon an excellent article -- surely the kind you will never find in the mainstream American press. Titled 'Breaking the Taboo on Israel's spying efforts on the United States' by Christopher Ketcham (who has written for Harper's, Vanity Fair, Salon, GQ, Counterpunch and several other magazines and websites), the article breaks down several myths. And before going into some of the things he h...

The News, March 15, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Ruled by psychopaths By Omar R. Quraishi What is a psychopath, one may ask. According to Wikipedia (what else is one supposed to quote in a newspaper article?), it is a construct made by psychologists to describe "chronic immoral and antisocial behaviour." Perhaps one could argue that it should not be necessarily 'immoral' but 'amoral' -- as in behaviour that does not adhere to any moral norms in that it does not depend on the individual's perception of morality in society. In many industrialised countries, psychopath is a legal term used to fight crime perpetrated by individuals who may have traits similar to those exhibited by psychopaths as defined by specific laws. Of course, the primary reason for the enactment of such laws is to treat those who have such disorders The heading of this article may make some readers wonder who is being ruled over and who is the ruler. Once the definition of what makes a psychopath ...

The News, March 8, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Liberty attack -- whodunit? By Omar R. Quraishi Not even two hours had gone by and several TV channels had all kinds of 'experts' coming on air and giving their -- mostly half-baked and should I dare say absurd-sounding -- theories on who or what may be behind the attack in Lahore on the Sri Lankan cricket team's bus as it travelled through Liberty Market. In most cases, and quite disturbingly so, several of the 'analysts' and 'experts' took the very dangerous line suggesting that "oh no Pakistani could ever do such a thing" and that since a country like India would benefit the most from such an incident, it may well be that the Liberty attacks were an Indian response to last year's Mumbai attacks. As always, no proof or even past circumstantial evidence of any kind was proffered to substantiate this. The TV anchors listening to such comments failed to point out the necessary caveat that such comments shou...

The News, March 1, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Surviving in a dysfunctional state By Omar R. Quraishi What do you do when you live in a country/society where standing up and doing things according to a system or the law is frowned upon and actually becomes a handicap? How many of us have waited – as any law-abiding civic-minded citizen would do – patiently in queue at a bank to pay bill or at NADRA to get our CNIC or passport only to see some people get ahead of us? This is particularly true of the immigration counter when one returns to Pakistan from overseas – perhaps it is also the first prompt reminder that we are truly back in the Land of the Pure – to find dozens of people even remotely related to an FIA constable posted at the airport getting their passports stamped first. In fact this system, which rewards one's connections and ability to offer patronage, is evident the moment one steps out of the plane because you see all kinds of assorted flunkeys holding signs for various sahibs...

The News, Feb 22, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Caving in to obscurantism – yet again By Omar R. Quraishi The so-called peace deal reached between the ANP government and the leader of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, Maulana Sufi Mohammad, in Swat is nothing more than an abject surrender to the forces of militancy and obscurantism in the country. As expected, it has ended up polarising society – many people heaving a sigh of relief that now the violence would perhaps end, while others have been dismayed by what they see as the government's surrender to the rapidly increasing wave of Talibanisation. The most obvious question that comes to mind – and it was encapsulated well by a reader of this newspaper – Bilal Habib of Washington DC – who sent in a letter where he asked the government of Pakistan that would be it agree to implement Sharia if, say, the people of Larkana or Karachi also demanded its imposition? In addition to this I have several other questions – but is there anyone t...

The News, Feb 15, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Gem of a documentary By Omar R. Quraishi Finally something to do worthwhile in Karachi with the arrival of Karafilm Festival, sorely missed because its organisers weren't able to hold it last year and the year before. Given the rigours of work and other pressing commitments, I wasn't quite able to do justice to the season pass that my wife had generously gifted me. However, there were some very good films I managed to see -- and as usual, almost all of them were documentaries. The first one was a production for BBC Earth called Snow Leopard: Beyond the myth. It ran for 48 minutes and its production date is 2008 though much of the filming was done in 2005 because one of its protagonists, Nisar Malik, took time off from the filming to lead a for relief work after the October 2005 earthquake. The film chronicles Malik, who led the expedition, and British photographer Mark Smith's journey to Chitral (mistakenly mentioned at the beginning of ...

The News, Feb 15, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Gem of a documentary By Omar R. Quraishi Finally something to do worthwhile in Karachi with the arrival of Karafilm Festival, sorely missed because its organisers weren't able to hold it last year and the year before. Given the rigours of work and other pressing commitments, I wasn't quite able to do justice to the season pass that my wife had generously gifted me. However, there were some very good films I managed to see -- and as usual, almost all of them were documentaries. The first one was a production for BBC Earth called Snow Leopard: Beyond the myth. It ran for 48 minutes and its production date is 2008 though much of the filming was done in 2005 because one of its protagonists, Nisar Malik, took time off from the filming to lead a for relief work after the October 2005 earthquake. The film chronicles Malik, who led the expedition, and British photographer Mark Smith's journey to Chitral (mistakenly mentioned at the beginning of ...

The News, Feb 8, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Our very own serial killers By Omar R. Quraishi The picture that you will find accompanying this week's column was sent to me by a reader. He says he is from Swat and knows someone who took this and wanted it published in a newspaper. (And given the number of such beheadings that have taken place there it was only a matter of time that someone would actually take a picture and send it to the media). The reason for publishing something like this would be to probably stir people revulsion and hatred for those who are involved in such atrocities. The man who sent me the picture also sent a couple of others showing similar scenes. Those pictures were far gorier and probably could not be published – much less seen. However, if you notice this particular picture, you will find that there are ordinary people (and by that I mean men and boys because women and girls apparently are no longer to be found on the streets of Swat) walking by this beheaded bod...

The News, Feb 1, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT The Taliban among us By Omar R. Quraishi Much is being said and written about the tyrannical Taliban rule in Swat. This newspaper has been inundated with letters from people who live there, who have lived there, who know people who live there and from people who know people who used to live there, on the terrible situation in the region. Understandably, many of the letter-writers are angry and frustrated. Frustrated at the promises of the government and angered at what many say is clear complicity by some institutions of the state in the violence wreaked by the Taliban. They quote information minister Sherry Rehman's recent remarks to the press including a statement to the effect that the government will not allow the Taliban to stop girls from going to school. Also just today (this column was written on Jan 28) we received a furious letter from a resident of Peshawar who had written in response to a statement by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilan...

The News, Jan 25, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Why are the courts silent over the missing? By Omar R. Quraishi I often get mails from Amina Masood Janjua -- who is the wife of Masood Janjua, missing for dozens of months, and according to her, picked up by the intelligence agencies during the time of General Musharraf. Hers is one of many cases of disappearances of dozens of Pakistani citizens during the previous government, otherwise known as the missing persons' scandal. Mrs Janjua has written letters to even Barack Obama -- though one wonders whether they ever managed to make it to him -- and says that her US visa was revoked some weeks ago minutes before she was to board a plane from Geneva to New York, where she had gone to speak on the missing persons' scandal. No reason was given for this -- it never is -- but it probably had to do with the fact that many of the people picked up during Musharraf's regime were detained because of their alleged involvement in the war on terror. ...

The News, Jan 18, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Why are we silent on Swat? By Omar R. Quraishi If you ask this question from those who live in the once pristine valley, they will laugh (or perhaps cry) at you for being so ignorant about the goings-on in your own country. Indeed, in recent weeks the letters section of this newspaper has carried several pieces, many of them from residents of Swat or those who grew up there. The tone is bitter and frustrated and that is completely understandable given what is going in the district. The residents say that the rest of the country seems to have forgotten about this tragedy in their very own land and seem preoccupied with other things. They say that they have been caught between the veritable devil and the deep blue sea -- as in the Taliban extremists and government security forces. They say that they are not able to fight the Taliban and that anybody who even remotely tries to resist is branded an agent of the government or of America and marked for d...

The News, Jan 4, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Hating/loving India By Omar R. Quraishi People in this country have a love-hate relationship with India. Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan are idolized in Pakistan and the justification – perhaps subconsciously – that they are Muslim. But also admired are people like Sunil Gavaskar, probably because in his commentary on cricket matches he is seen by many Pakistanis as being even-handed. The same goes for someone like Ravi Shastri though less for Navjot Sidhu (who is just plain annoying) and even less for Kapil Dev or Harsha Bhogle. Then there is the more recent phenomenon of Pakistani cricketers going to play 20/20 cricket in India and doing very well and making a lot of money in the process. In fact, when the Mumbai attacks happened, a couple of them such as Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir, were in Mumbai -- since a T20 tournament was about to begin in early December. According to some reports in the Indian media, it is unlikely that these P...

The News, Dec 28, 2008 RIPPLE EFFECT Where the hell is the law? By Omar R. Quraishi I can’t help but notice this garish building which has slowly but surely come in front of my apartment complex in Bath Island. It is quite an irony that the area which contains the main residential enclave for government officials has perhaps the highest rate of building violations in a city known for not exactly enforcing the law when it comes to zoning and construction regulations. The building that I live in has four stories so it’s probably not so illegal, but this new building which is in the last stages of construction has eight stories and I can bet a million rupees that much of the construction is a violation of the Karachi Building Control Authority’s code. Also, to make matters worse – though this is apparently the norm in Karachi – it’s not as if the construction ceases in the evening. At midnight, or sometimes even at two or three in the morning, I would hear the sound of a dumper bring cem...

The News, Dec 21, 2008 RIPPLE EFFECT The JuD and ordinary Pakistanis By Omar R. Quraishi In case readers didn't know -- and there is an acute shortage of facts on this issue -- the Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned by the Pakistan government in 2002. This happened following an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 by what India later claimed were members of the LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. One calls it a claim because the people who were later prosecuted and convicted of the attack have always claimed their innocence and sections of the Indian media and many Indian rights groups and activists have themselves said that the cases against these people were weak at best. However, this is not to say that the LeT or for that matter its affiliate the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) are completely innocent of the terrorist acts that they have been accused of. And again, since facts are in short supply when one discusses such issues, one will take recourse to the organisation's website -- wh...

The News, Dec 14, 2008 RIPPLE EFFECT Scams 'r' us By Omar R. Quraishi I remember the time when I was in university in America and a friend of mine who just happened to be Pakistani told me how he and his friend made a couple of hundred dollars from the airline that they flew from Pakistan on. The scam, because that's what it was, was that they complained to the airline, upon reaching JKF in New York that their luggage had been lost. They managed to do this because once their luggage, a suitcase, came through baggage claim and one of their friends who had come to the airport to receive them quietly took it away. This was in the early 1990s and there was no real strict checking of luggage at most American airports, certainly not in the way that happens now where disembarking passengers are asked to show receipts and tags for luggage that they take with them once they leave the terminal. The unsuspecting airline, according to its policy of providing compensation to passengers...

The News, Oct 25, 2009 RIPPLE EFFECT Attack on GHQ – some questions By Omar R Quraishi The attack on GHQ on Oct 10 has left dozens of questions unanswered. For the benefit of readers, some of these are (in no order of importance but written down as each comes to mind): From where did the men who allegedly carried out the attack get hold of the military uniforms that they were wearing? Can any Tom, Dick and Harry go to a store in a cantonment area and purchase a military uniform? Most countries in the developed world have stringent checks on civilians obtaining military and/or police uniforms. Are any such checks in place in Pakistan? From where did the attackers get hold of military plates and insignia for the car that they were travelling in as they approached the GHQ main gate? Most published reports of the attack, quoting officials, say that the Suzuki hi-roof in which the attackers approached the checkpost had a military number-plate and also that a raid carried out by the secreta...