Ripple Effect

this story in Dawn on April 12 http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/12/us-asked-to-stop-drone-raids-cut-cia-operations.html has been written by Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider -- Dawn's Washington and New York correspondents -- they extensively quote from an NYT story -- forget the fact that in some places the attribution is not clear (as in readers cannot really tell whether they have written the story or whether it is the NYT report that they are quoting) but what was bewildering was the fact that this story on the paper's back page (of the same day's edition) by its Peshawar bureau chief Ismail Khan http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/12/pak-military-asks-us-to-significantly-cut-number-of-cia-operatives.html was EXACTLY the same story that Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider were quoting Now why would you take as the front page lead a story in NYT when your own reporter co-wrote that story and you have taken that story on your back page anchor Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Special buses will be run from Lahore to Chandigarh for the semi-final -- Distance between Lahore and Amritsar -- 50 kilometres Distance between Amritsar and Chandigarh - 217 kilometres Distance between Lahore and Multan -- 317 kilometres Lahore and Chandigarh, as the crow flies, and even if one counts the length of the highway and road that connects Lahore to Attari, and then from Attari to Amritsar and then to Chandigarh, is closer than Lahore to Multan The barriers that we have put up on either side -- how brilliant would it be if we could just drive from Lahore to Chandigarh to watch the semi final I guess that aint happening in my lifetime

Is it just me or all the front-page stories on the nationwide euphoria following Pakistan's massive win over the West Indies in the World Cup quarter-final in Dhaka on Pakistan Day made no mention of anyone celebrating in Balochistan?

On my way to work this morning, while listening to FM 91's show with Sophie, I heard this radio advert by Nestle -- It starts with a male voice -- the husband -- saying "Begum, tum nay packing naheen kee? Murree naheen jana?" And the woman says, "Naheen, mein bhot thakee huee hoon" And they end up not going -- and the ad says that the woman is tired because of iron deficiency -- and that had she been drinking Nestle's Milkpak, perhaps this situation wouldn't have materialised -- while more women, statistically speaking, suffer from iron deficiency, the advert does reinforce a very stereotypical image of the woman, rather 'begum', doing all the work in the home (wake up Nestle! of all companies one would have thought you would know that that stereotype is under threat in most Pakistan cities at least) -- of course, it is not difficult to understand why big corporations would, despite the liberal/forward-looking public persona of themselves that th...

Judge for yourself Editorial in The Express Tribune -- March 13, 2011 http://tribune.com.pk/story/131689/more-missiles--or-more-schools/ More missiles — or more schools? Spending on missile defence takes away from our social sector development in an economy, which is estimated to grow by a mere two per cent this year, compared to India’s nine per cent. PHOTO: INP India and Pakistan have test-fired their nuclear-capable short-range, surface-to-surface, ballistic missiles on the same day, and if one were to say that was coincidental, there would be very few takers. Everything the two neighbours do is a hostile message from one to the other, emanating from costly mutual espionage that they conduct against each other. If tit-for-tat was the motive behind the timing, India wins because it fired two nuclear missiles instead of one. In 1998, when it came to nuclear tests, Pakistan had won because it exploded more devices than India. Pakistan has fired Hatf-2 — hatf means ‘bodiless sound’ but ...

What in the world is Unilever trying to teach children in Pakistan? If anyone has seen the new Surf Excel advertisement, they would know what I am talking about. And for those who haven't. it shows a group of children wearing school uniforms trying to have some fun in the rain -- which is fine, but these children are shown having fun while lowering their pants and jumping around in the water. I am no prude and this isn't an issue of morality or anything, but rather propriety. Is the message that Unilever is sending children, and indirectly their parents, that it is okay to run around in the rain with your pants lowered and exposing your underwear? Seriously, would Ehsan Malik want his own children to behave in this manner? One would have expected slightly better from a company that calls itself the largest multinational in the so-called FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods)and which in 2010 earned an after-tax profit of over Rs3.2 billion

Yes you read that right -- Star Plus, the Indian television channel otherwise banned in Pakistan, but presumably available in most parts of the country, is the most-watched channel on cable television. In fact, it leads the next most-watched channel, Geo News, by such a wide margin that more people watch Star Plus than the next four channels on the ratings list. Not only that, the top five also includes two other banned Indian channels, Sony and Colors. Lest people be suspicious of where I'm getting all this from, this is in fact in the public realm, thanks to brandsynario.com, a Pakistani marketing and advertising website, which has posted the results of an exhaustive survey by Media Logic detailing the viewing habits of Pakistanis for 2010. Media Logic is incidentally the same company that does market research and ratings for the industry and hence its findings are normally taken at face value and accepted by all the channels. There are two ratings lists that are of interest. The...