The Price

re: shrinker

can you keep your non-stop sexual perversion off Chowk?...my innocuous comment about chasing skirts pales in comparison...

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/23/movies/23ISLA.html

``..Lifting the Veil on a Far-Off World

By A. O. SCOTT

By now, anyone who reads the newspapers is aware that Kandahar is the name of the city in southern Afghanistan that has become known as the Taliban`s main stronghold. It is also the name of an extraordinary film by the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf that was shown at this year`s Cannes and Toronto film festivals and which will be released in New York next month. When I saw ``Kandahar`` at Cannes in May, I was transfixed by its images and moved by its story of an exiled Afghan woman venturing back into her native country to search for her sister. The world it depicted seemed, to me and to other Westerners in attendance, far away and
even — in part because of the lyricism Mr. Makhmalbaf brings to his grimmest pictures of war and deprivation — exotic...``

``...``Kandahar`` is one of several recent Iranian films that touch on the situation in Afghanistan, whose decades of war have sent more than 1.5 million refugees into Iran. Majid Majidi`s ``Baran,`` which was shown at the New York Film Festival last month and which will be released next month in New York and Los Angeles, is the story of a young Iranian laborer who falls in love with an Afghan woman who arrives, disguised as a boy, to work on his construction site. Hassan Yektapanah`s ``Djomeh,`` which played at Film Forum last summer, is also a cross-cultural love story, about an Afghan immigrant`s infatuation with a shopkeeper`s daughter in a rural village. Unlike ``Kandahar,`` which ventures into the heart of the Afghan tragedy, these films allow the war to hover in the background, shadowing their delicate, elliptical fables of ordinary life...``

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/23/movies/23JUNG.html

Compassion in the Eye of a Storm
By A. O. SCOTT

At one point in ``Jung (War) in the Land of the Mujahedeen,`` Gino Strada, an Italian doctor whose attempt to build a hospital near the front lines in northern Afghanistan is the the focus of the film, remarks bitterly that the conflict in that country is a ``forgotten war.``

That this is no longer the case does nothing to diminish the relevance of this unsparing, heroic documentary by Fabrizio Lazzaretti, Alberto Vendemmiati and Giuseppe Petitto, but rather makes it essential viewing for anyone who desires a sense of the finer human grain of a war that now commands the attention of the world as never before.

In cinematic terms, ``Jung`` (which means war in Dari, a predominant Afghan language) is evidence of the continued vitality of the cinéma vérité tradition. Without narration or talking-head briefings, the film plunges, with Dr. Strada and his companions — Kate Rowlands, a British nurse, and Ettore Mo, an Italian journalist — into the misery and chaos of combat and its aftermath. The most eloquent testimony to the prolonged agonies of Russian invasion, fratricidal civil war and Taliban rule comes from the people of Afghanistan, who speak with dignity and forthrightness about the brutality of the last two decades.

Though the film`s images are heart-rending — small children whose limbs have been blown off by land mines, sick and wounded soldiers in crowded casualty wards, elderly people who find themselves homeless and destitute — the filmmakers are not soliciting our pity. Like Ms. Rowlands, Dr. Strada and Mr. Mo, they practice an intrepid humanism without borders and without illusions.

The Northern Alliance fighters whom the filmmakers talk to — including Ahmed Shah Massoud, the legendary Lion of the Panjshir who was assassinated in September by men said to be linked to Osama bin Laden — are as ruthless and determined as their unseen foes. They see themselves as holy warriors fighting a patriotic battle against an enemy they describe as the tool of Pakistan, Britain and the United States. One imagines that — at least in terms of the latter two — their thinking has changed recently.

The film chronicles, in a series of rough, disjointed sequences, two visits to the area north of Kabul, in 1999 and 2000. Dr. Strada`s purpose in coming to Afghanistan was toestablish a hospital in the city of Charikar, and his gruff impatience isas crucial to his project as his compassion.

He manages to get medical suppliesfrom Italy, to ban firearms from his buildings and to persuade a militia commander to move a column of tanks parked nearby that might have made the hospital an irresistible military target for Taliban artillery. He and Ms. Rowlands recruit Kurdish doctors and hire refugees to work as orderlies and attendants. By the end of ``Jung,`` they seem to have succeeded in creating a relatively peaceful and stable oasis in the midst of catastrophe.

His work in Charikar complete for the moment, Dr. Strada boards a helicopter bound for the Taliban-controlled zone, where he hopes to accomplish something similar. The filmmakers do not follow him, and we never learn how he fared. But without sanitizing the Taliban`s opponents — whose recent victories in Kabul and elsewhere have inspired jubilation and concern — the film provides ample evidence of the Taliban`s cruelty. Women whose villages have, in the film, been liberated from Taliban control still wear their burkas just in case their oppressors return. (Similar caution has been reported in the wake of the Northern Alliance`s more decisive recent victories.)

``Jung`` can hardly be called optimistic, but neither does it invite despair. The filmmakers leave little doubt that the Afghans have been brutalized by war, but suggest that they do not seem to have been broken by it.

One of the most moving passages in the film records the death of an elderly man, not because of the war but from a vicious form of melanoma. In the midst of caring for the wounded, the hospital provides him terminal care, and he dies with his grandchildren around him. The tears they shed at his funeral carry a curiously hopeful message: this quiet death, in the midst of so many hideously unnatural, unspeakably violent ones, holds out the fragile promise that the normal life the Afghans long for may somehow be possible.

JUNG (WAR) IN THE LAND OF THE MUJAHEDEEN

Saxena

#200

heheh; good one..

but..but.. before you think my compliment is going to destroy our hateful friendship... could you do us a favor & not share your wet dreams about chasing girls?.. you can chase `em alright..but if any girl chooses to be caught by you--she should be involuntarily committed to a mental health unit to get her head examined!..

cheers

Romair #188:

``India has repeatedly refused to play Pakistan in cricket, for reasons other than good sportsmenship. This has caused a loss of millions of dollars to Pakistan cricket. However, Pakistan has still gone out of its way to support the BCCI, at a very critical juncture for BCCI, where it needs all the support it can get. If Pakistan were not to support the BCCI now, the BCCI would be completely cornered.

``I wonder what the reaction of the Indians and the Indian Board will be to this support.``

US has repeatedly refused to support Pakistan in its time of need. However, Pakistan has supported the US in its time of need, even at the cost of millions of dollars. If Pakistan were not to support the Americans now, the Americans would be completely cornered. I wonder what the reaction of the Americans will be to this support.

Sounds familiar? Ok, BCCI, lets throw the dog a bone.

re: shammi

``The solution lies in the poor being empowered to elect people who represent their causes in government and national legislative bodies. While this is no panacea, it lays the necessary foundations for improvements going forward.``

...that solves only half the problem...in india poor often means uneducated and hence, politically naive...what other explanation could there be for Biharis voluntarily electing that goat Laloo?...and then there is the problem with the pool of candidates...each more worthless than the other...india`s best and brightest shun politics...America put a Rhodes scholar in the White House and Goldman Sachs`s ex-chairman in the Senate..what do we have in India? Sonia Gandhi? a Prime Minister who gets stage fright in front of foreign media?

democracy is the best option but a lot else is required for it to provide the intended benefits...an educated public is chief amongst them...

Prem #132 Thanks for your efforts to get jay and his types to learn to behave on chowk - the fact that there is no punishment for bad behavior on chowk gives us a chance to show our true colors and character. Jay underlying hatred for pakistanis has been demonstrated before. The character that underlies the rest of the mumbo-jumbo he writes in his post #183 responding to you is comes out when he writes: ``There is no poit in being polite to children of TNT, they have to bashed, bahsed hard if one takes it as a sport.``

The Chowk Moderator is of course asleep at the wheel, otherwise you and I could discuss something more intelligent and interesting than Jay Thakeray.

Actually, i dont mind wasting time commenting on this man`s posts - what the heck :-). Hope you are enjoying the thanksgiving weekend.

romair

``Musharraf fits that bill better than anyone else avaiable. That is why he should be supported till election time``

....... aaallll right ! .... we will give him till election time and see how long the ``elected`` prime minister is allowed to serve ...... i give BB another two years before the tanks roll in front of ptv ! ........ and then it will be sher-i-lahore shahbaz sharif with imran khan as chief minister of punjab and omar asghar khan as chief minister of nwfp ....... who knows we might even see aitaizaz ahsan as law minister and wasim sajjad back as president ...... anyone is okay as long as the military mafia gets to run wapda and the cricket board...

........ in pakistan people are free to eat corn-flakes as long as they are made by fuji foundation ! .......

Dost mittar,

We all know that you Canadians are supremely better at everything than we Yanks...except for music...I think comedy is Canada`s field of rule!

re: ali/eunuch

``But you chase cyber skirts on chowk all by yourself. Why?``

i`d ask you to join me but you`re too busy chasing the beards

hamidm #173: ``now, how can you implement a kemalist agenda which does not effect all of pakistan ?``

There is nothing wrong with Kemalism or Islamism, nor any other kind of, ``ism,`` provided the people on whom these, ``isms`` are being applied are happy with them. Even the best solution applied against the will of the people, will not be successful. One cannot hold 140 million people hostage and force them to do something, they don`t want to do. I hope you agree with this.

I have nothing against Kemalism, I just don`t want it forced upon anyone. Opening up the local bar will solve Pakistan`s problems, about as much as opening up the Masjid hammam.

The reason the military will accept Kemalism, is because the orientation of the military, from day one, has been on British traditions, and American tactics. The traditions are so strong that we still stand up and toast (with Rooh Afza, of course) at the dinners. Every military training institution still teaches how to be a gentleman cadet and not a mujahid. Being British hasn`t made the military better or worse, but that is what the soldiers want. If you have been a soldier, you will understand this.

The rest of Pakistan doesn`t want it to that extent. One has to assume people know what is good for them, as long as they are given the right to excercise their free will.

``so let`s not lull ourselves into thinking that mushy is the messiah we have all been waiting for ...... i, like all desperate pakis, am willing to give him a chance but it is wise to be a skeptical``

One should always be skeptical, specially when it comes to national leaders. But one should not go overboard, in skepticism. Someone has to run the country. It cannot run on autopilot.

I once consulted with a start-up, which was attempting to hire a VP Engg. The requirements they laid down included Ivy League degree, top 5 software company VP level experience, etc. I told them, after a few months of their rejecting ever candidate, they should lower their standards, and higher the best available person. It was better to have a VP Engg, then not to have one, at all. They kept waiting and waiting, and in the end, had to accept a worse candidate, then the ones they could have hired earlier.

One cannot just oppose everyone. It makes one sound like a revolutionary, and is popular with the peanut gallery. However, it is counter-productive. Pakistan does not need a messiah. It just needs to make sure devils like NS and BB can never even come close to power again. It doesn`t need a great leader, it just needs an honest and dedicated one. There are plenty of great Pakistanis, not interested in leadership positions, who will be more than happy to assist, if they feel the leader is honest; even if the leader is not brialliant. Musharraf fits that bill better than anyone else avaiable. That is why he should be supported till election time.

``Pakistan supports BCCI stand

By Our Sports Reporter

KARACHI, Nov 23: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Friday supported the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) but dismissed apprehensions that the Asian bloc was a threat to International Cricket Council (ICC).`` (Dawn)

India has repeatedly refused to play Pakistan in cricket, for reasons other than good sportsmenship. This has caused a loss of millions of dollars to Pakistan cricket. However, Pakistan has still gone out of its way to support the BCCI, at a very critical juncture for BCCI, where it needs all the support it can get. If Pakistan were not to support the BCCI now, the BCCI would be completely cornered.

I wonder what the reaction of the Indians and the Indian Board will be to this support.

Mohajir, Thanks for all the posts and the addresses of the website. Denial does not help anybody. Regards.

Re: Tahmed321 #168

``...Particularly when poverty is taken for granted by the middle classes around them...``

The solution lies in the poor being empowered to elect people who represent their causes in government and national legislative bodies. While this is no panacea, it lays the necessary foundations for improvements going forward.

From India`s experience, it is the middle class that has provided stability to Indian politics. While they are behind the rise of the BJP (principally as anti-Congressism), it is also they who are also keeping the fascists in check. And it is the middle class (includes peons, chaprasis, factory workers, in India) that is clamoring for education, consumer goods and economic reforms.

sesana # 178

[true dat...my paki buddy and i drink, chase skirts, and curse goras in hindi/urdu just fine]

But you chase cyber skirts on chowk all by yourself. Why?

Ref sigalph235 #: 182

[I probably don`t disagree with you on the quality of India`s interference in Nepal. But it is the attitude of `my province` that I mentioned where Pakistan and India do have a similarity.]

I agree with you on the attitude of `my province` on India`s part. But in view of China`s occupation of Tibet and probing into the border territories of Nepal in the 50s and 60s, it is necessary for India to be a bit more forceful in its dealings with even a small country like Nepal. Nepal didn`t, and still, doesn`t have good roads in its northern border areas (more mountainous than its southern border with India which is part of the Indo-Gangetic plains) and the Chinese were particularly nasty in the early 50s to the Nepalese. Areas such as Mustang in NW Nepal were threatened with annexation by the Chinese. There was, and probably is, a lot more collaboration between the governments of India and Nepal than is seen in the press where the politicians have to stand up to ``Big Brother`` India.

[As for Sikkim and, to a lesser extent, Bhutan, let`s leave it for another day because you and I will most likely have very different interpretations of history for those two entities.]

Why is it that China points out that Tibet used to ask the Chinese emperor`s protection to justify its occupation of Tibet but conveniently forgets that Tibet in 9th century defeated and occupied Beijing? Why is it that the Chinese claim Mustang to be part of China ignoring the fact that Nepal in 19th century went to war with Tibet and occupied most of southern Tibet? So, where does one draw boundaries? Why is it that the same logic is NOT applied by the Chinese to the Republic of Mongolia which only broke away from China in 1921? And in terms of protecting the culture of Bhutan, would the Bhutanese be better under China than be independent under the protection of India? And wouldn`t Sikkim have been independent today if not for the meddling of that woman, Hope Cooke?