Climate Controlled

Shan-daar!

Observer,

The elite gaining wealth: Do the numbers, from 12 families controlling most national resources, we have grown to several hundred thousand administering the same. The ``elite`` has gotten more numerous. This is what prosperity means. That is the middle class.

Imports and prosperity: Rising imports have ALWAYS been an indicator of increasing wealth, notwithstanding the usually unpleasant economic consequences. This is self evident when you realise that the nations participation in the impartial global marketplace is increasing. By empirical standards, the money they have to spend has risen in terms the rest of the world finds acceptable.

Tahnoon.

Liked the imagery, good use of words. Adoloescent angst in Pakistan...what a concept.

Re: Tahnoon Pasha

``...people have more, although it remains unevenly
distributed....`` Isn`t that the whole point? No one ever said that Pakistan`s elite were experiencing hard times. Wouldn`t the expanding levels of imports that you point to just prove that the rich accumulate more, at the poor`s expense. Besides, since when have imports become an indicator of prosperity?

I`d tend to agree with the statement that Pakistan as a country as deteriorated progressively since independence, and especially in the last decade and a half. At any rate, it sounds like an excellent survey topic.

As far as the masses being without hope, the final nail in Pakistan`s coffin will be hammered when hope is lost.

Re:S.Anwar,

Are things better than they were a decade ago? Certainly. The expanding level of consumer imports and local consumption will tell you people have more, although it remains unevenly distributed.

Two decades ago? Was the time of the twelve families, the middle class was a glimmer in the nations eye.

In 1947, millions of people crossed the border leaving all their assets behind. They walked into the most abject poverty imaginable. At home, the charred ruins of a seasons crops were a testament to the havoc that partition wreaked.

The stagnation of the poor is as much an illusion as the malice of the sun. We have lost ground relative to other nations but our people do not labour in vain.

A very entertaining indictment of our ivory towers. Great work.

One thing though, there is little that is Sisyphean about the efforts of Karachi`s masses. The going is slow, but the rock does not roll back down hill. Steady progress in the face of adversity is the order of the day.

RE: Shair-e-Mashriq

Aziz shair, Faiz ko ghalat-malat na likho.

Pehla Qata Ishq(1) say hai aur kuch yoN hai:

Taza haiN abhi yaad maiN Aie Saqi-e-Gulfam
Woh AKs-e-Rukhe-e-Yaar Mein Beetay Hue Ayaam

Dosra Ishq(2) ka akheer hai:
Is Ishq Na Us Ishq Pe Nadem Hai Magar Dil
Har Daagh Hai Is Dil MaiN BuJuz Dagh-e-Nadaamat

Shayid yeh bhi koi naya cocktail hai: ``Faiz Collins?``