Pandora Box of Television in Pakistan

#59 hamidm: i agree that there is a lot of great TV as well. There is the Science Channel, the History Channel, the National Geographic, and the great stuff that sometimes comes on the Public Broadcasting Channel. I havent followed the Anna Nicole Smith circus for more than a few mintes on cnn (honest!!), but did watch Jon Stewart (another great TV show) demonstrate how cnn, fox and other cheapsters were milking this circus.

#56 zeemax sahib

This is the beauty of American tv that all of us are free to watch whatever. This is choose and pick.

I agree with you that anna nicole`s case is just shameful. I mean what an embarrassement for a woman who was not even sure of her daughter`s exact paternity.

All of a sudden all these shameless people appearing from every creek and corner for claiming the paternity. Anna nicole in my opinion was sleazy, drugged up bimbo who slept almost with every Tom, Dick and Harry.............

Pakistani and India TVs give me nothing but headaches.

Re: # 77

zeena,

``I mean what an embarrassement for a woman who was not even sure of her daughter`s exact paternity``

........ but think about it, mary was not sure about her son`s paternity either ........

urstruly lowers his gaze when he sees women...so he swings the other way? dayyyumn...what`s he going to do with his 72 virgins then?

#74 now this is an incident Urstruly would have captured better with his lowered gaze and raised video camera.:-)

Re: #39

Years ago when I was in Kashmir, I happened to witness a pow wow between two Kashmiri women. As the verbal fight went on and got more intense, one of the women held one of her breasts with both her hands and shook it vigorously in the direction of her opponent at the same time issuing forth a lot of hot words which could only be surmised as expletives.
Can any Kashmiri Chowki throw light on the significance of this kind of gesturing? I was told it is a gesture often employed by Kashmiri women during their scraps with other women.

ZaharJ

In most of the urban Pakistan, to this day, there exists an open drain system in residential areas; open gutters are built on both side of the streets alongside the row of the houses. In Urdu these gutters are commonly referred to as naliaN. There are many Urdu proverbs that take into account those ``naliaN``, for example, `naali ka keera` is used to refer to a low life. The used and disposable water from kitchens and bathroom drains into these naalis, through a small hole in the walls of the houses, which is commonly referred to as ``mori``. There are many Urdu proverbs that take into account that ``mori``, as well, to describe a certain aspect; e.g. the proverb ``mori ki eent`` refers to a person who descends into proverbial filth to protect someone, like his family. He is not respected for that but regardless he keeps on doing the thankless job that needs to be done for greater good. It is akin to a piece of brick that is usually stuck at the ``mori` to keep the rodents coming in at night time.

Usually the plinth of the houses are kept higher than level of the gutters outside, so that the dirty water from outside does not creep into the house. But sometime the dirty water does come in – due to any number of reasons; one reason being the bad planning when house was being built and the other reason being that the level of gutters outside is raised by the repeated digging by municipality for laying down utilities etc.. In such houses there is a persistent problem of odor and other dirt related issues like flies, roaches, and rodents. If the residents of the house do not attend to the problem soon, the problem becomes persistent but after a while it renders the residents desensitized to the problem. They do not understand why they and their kids always remain sick and why visitors always complain about a `non-extistent` odor while they don`t feel a thing.

The reason, I wrote #39 was not because I wanted to entertain people, but I was trying to make a point in the context of this article. Every society has its ugly underbelly. A responsible society always tries to prudently address the issues of this underbelly and tries to minimize its effects into the rest of the society. The irresponsible society does not care about it and soon it becomes desensitized to it. The taboo becomes norm.

The TV and media in the modern times has become that proverbial portal, which is akin to that ``mori`` described above. If the foundation of your house is low, the ``dirty water`` from outside will creep in. A ``mori- ki eent`` is akin to the parent who assumes the control of the ``clicker`` or remote control of the TV. But if foundation of the house is low the mori ki eent cannot be effective. The dirty water still seeps in; rodents and insects still can crawl in; the odor in the house becomes overwhelming. After a while the responsible members of the household become desensitized to the problem and everybody remains ``sick`` all the time.

But just like mori and naali analogy, the responsibility to keep the household does not end at individual; society as a whole must act responsibly. It cannot afford to be indifferent to those who have houses with lower foundations. Everybody takes care of the other. What is taboo must remain taboo.

Re: # 62

urstruly,

you remind me of ted haggard, jimmy swaggert and jim bakker .......... i hope the resemblance is coincidental, but the rule has been proven to be true over and over again ..........

Re: # 66

Hamid mian, I dont know why it was this particular banter that woke us up from our self imposed slumber but it did. We have some querries for your consideration.

1. Speaking of hot women and cooking shows, did you check out Top Chef? We would highly recommend this show to your family as it seamlessly combines Iron Chef with American Idol and provides for your viewing pleasure the amazing Padma Laxmi. If ever there was a reason to choose writing as a career, Salmaan Rushdie typifies it by having secured this godess even though he looks like a cross between Hammie from Over the Hedge and Hagrid from Harry Potter.

2. Do you think the desi community is voting en masse to keep that kid Sanjaya alive? That Rudy kid really got shafted!

We await your wisdom on these issues.

Impressions

Re: # 68

impressions,

........ i think you are right - the desi community probably did vote for the desi kid en masse but i don`t think rudy was much better (although he was definitely better than sundance - he is gone next round !)...... sanjaya didn`t pick the right song but he has a great voice and i think he is good for another round or two ......... at this point, i think chris sligh and lakisha jones are clearly in the lead although melinda doolittle was awsome and there is something about blake lewis ....... the girls are definitely stronger this year and jordin sparks might surprise everyone - she has one heck of a stage presence for a seventeen year old ........... it is still too early to tell

..... and i will definitely check out top chef, i am sure padma is a fine cook... thanks for the tip

Re: # 66

Would you care to explain why these three fine gentlemen are bad people?

Re: # 67

urstruly,

they were bad people only because they said one thing and did another ...... they are guilty of lying and deception... other than that, there is nothing wrong with paying a prostitute for her services, being gay, or having an affair with the masjid secretary ( i think jim bakker was also gulity of having tammy for a wife and embezzling church money - which are, or should be, crimes) ........

Re: # 69

``they were bad people only because they said one thing and did another``


So in other words it is not a certain act that makes a person a bad person but lying about it does. For according to your standards, ted has become a fine person now since he has confessed being a gay. For all intent and purpose you shouldn`t be complaining about him now, shouldn`t you.

And in case of Bakker, he would have been a fine person too had he told everybody in advance that he was going to embezzel money from Church. Emebezzling is not a bad act, but lying about it is. Yep, the world would have been a better place had the emezzlers told in advance what they were going to do.

Re: # 71

urstruly,

..... don`t twist my words - i did say that embezzling was a crime, afterall it is another word for stealing .......... being gay is not a crime, but bashing gays is a crime and it is even worse if you are a gay yourself .........

.......... if it makes you feel any better, i put bill clinton and bill bennet in the same category ........ sex with a fat girl is not a crime and neither is gambling, but lying about it is (even though, personally i fnd one distasteful and the other sutpid) .....

Re: # 72

Bhai it is you who is twisting your own words. Just because you say that hypocisy is bad doesn`t make it so. In this age of reason what is `good` and `bad`. everything is relevant. So I advise you to refrain from this mullah terminology of good, bad and evil.

Now please explain to me how could you say that Ted haggard is a bad person. All he did was that he used to tell people to not do something (homosexuality), which is neither immoral nor illegal while doing it himself. Isn`t it like someone telling other not to eat candy while eating it himself. Is eating candy a crime or is it bad? I don`t think so. And so is not eating the candy. He is not hurting anyone, he is not stealing candy from anyone. Its not that anyone has ever died by not having candy. So if Ted tells me not to share tender moments with another man while he keeps doing it himself, instead of calling him a bad person I should expolre the reason why he is doing that. Probably he makes his living by doing that. Its not that I would leave my sleep over not having shared the bed with another man or anything. Similarly why would Clinton be a bad person when neither fornication nor adultery is a crime; it isn`t immoral either because morality or immorality has nho place in the age of reason. Clinton only lied because he would have lost his job because of vicious republicans. So he did the right and reaonable thing by lying. His lies were a victim less crime or a crime less crime.

Re: # 79

urstruly,

..... i am not going to debate the virtues of homosexaulity and candy-eating with you ........ all i was trying to point out is that people who raise shrill and loud voices against `sin` are usually doing it to cover up their own tortured feelings of guilt as in the ted haggard and jimmy swaggert .........