Drawing Palestine

Your Attention Please


The Polar DEW has just warned that


A nuclear rocket strike of


At least one thousand megatons


Has been launched by the enemy


Directly at our major cities.


This announcement will take


Two and a quarter minutes to make,


You therefore have a further


Eight and a quarter minutes


To comply with the shelter


Requirements published in the Civil


Defence Code - section Atomic Attack.


A specially shortened Mass


Will be broadcast at the end


Of this announcement -


Protestant and Jewish services


Will begin simultaneously -


Select your wavelength immediately


According to instructions


In the Defence Code. Do not


Take well-loved pets (including birds)


Into your shelter - they will consume


Fresh air. Leave the old and bed-


ridden, you can do nothing for them.


Remember to press the sealing


Switch when everyone is in


The shelter. Set the radiation


Aerial, turn on the geiger barometer.


Turn off your Television now.


Turn off your radio immediately


The Services end. At the same time


Secure explosion plugs in the ears


Of each member of your family. Take


Down your plasma flasks. Give your children


The pills marked one and two


In the C.D green container, then put


Them to bed. Do not break


The inside airlock seals until


The radiation All Clear shows


(Watch for the cuckoo in your


perspex panel), or your District


Touring Doctor rings your bell.


If before this, your air becomes


Exhousted or if any of your family


In critically injured, administer


The capsules marked `Valley Forge`


(Red Pocket in No. 1 Survival Kit)


For painless death. (Catholics


Will have been instructed by their priests


What to do in this eventuality).


This announcement is ending. Our President


Has already given orders for


Massive retaliation - it will be


Decisive. Some of us may die.


Remember, statistically


It is not likely to be you.


All flags are flying fully dressed


On Government buildings - the sun is shining.


Death is the least we have to fear.


We are all in the hands of God,


Whatever happens happens by His Will.


Now go quickly to your shelters.


-- Peter Porter

I think my last posting may have met its demise on the censor`s cutting board, so I`ll try being a kinder, gentler person.

Yasser, I have no shame in coming to the defense of `Palestinians` as you lump them. Not all Palestinians are terrorists, and it`s incredibly unfair and yes, even immature for you to say that. Not surprising, however, considering how easy bashing other groups comes to you. I have been a supporter of Palestinian statehood, ever since I was in Pakistan, because it was there that a few enlightened people brought this to our attention as young students.

And in terms of Palestinians being responsible for teaching terrorism all over the world, I think that the crapper may have flushed back up the load that went in there. For goodness sake`s man....ahhhh....it`s hopeless!

Or perhaps.. just maybe I know enough mideast history to know that Israel as a nation will always be risk, if these terrorists are given their own state.

One wonders where does this self proclaimed socialist called rehan ansari get so much money to travel from city to city...?

Being a well wisher for a Good Pakistan I cannot but echo YlH ,Pak has nothing to lose but its servility to Arab causes, now turn inwards and make a better word out of Pakistan before turning your sights outward.

Wondering out loud!

Why is that these overly excited Pro-Palestinian activists haven`t uttered a word about Kashmir and the Indian occupation there? Ah... but that ain`t as cool as `Palestine` is it.. I wonder why.. after all aren`t Kashmiris as fair as Palestinians?

YLH speaks:

Palestinians are terrorists. They have taught people terrorism all over the world. What happened in Karachi was directly inspired by Palestine.. Forget those Arab terrorists.. we have only begun to see what it feels like to be on the receiving end of suicide bombings.. Have you no shame in supporting the terrorist thugs of Palestine?



Actually, no. I have no shame in supporting the people of Palestine. What gives you the bloody right to judge all Palestinians as terrorists??? Oh, I suppose the same right that has you bashing Indians as well.

Palestinians have taught people terrorism all over the world?! My god, and here I was thinking it was the goras and their intelligence agencies! hmmm...meri bhool.

Not too focused on this one Rehan.


Ras

Ana,

Palestinians are terrorists. They have taught people terrorism all over the world. What happened in Karachi was directly inspired by Palestine.. Forget those Arab terrorists.. we have only begun to see what it feels like to be on the receiving end of suicide bombings.. Have you no shame in supporting the terrorist thugs of Palestine?



WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO MY COUNTRY

The unlikely hero of the blast

By Karachian

The devastating suicide bombing in the heart of the city last Wednesday, which took the lives of 14 people including 11 French citizens, has shaken Pakistanis to their core. It was certainly not the first incident of terrorism on Pakistani soil but the scale and nature of this attack has driven home to everyone the bitter harvest of the US-led ``war on terrorism``. Suddenly, even people in Karachi, far away from the main battlefields of Afghanistan, are acutely aware that they are directly in the firing line.

One journalist, who lives just down the road from where the blast took place and who was among the first people on the scene, reported being jolted awake by the deafening explosion which shook his entire building.

Running out on to his balcony, he saw smoke billowing on the road next to the Sheraton and PC hotels. When two people drenched in blood on a motorcycle, came and collapsed on the road right under his flat, he called his journalist colleagues and ran to the place of the incident.

The scene that he saw was of utter carnage. The smoking, blood-drenched debris of a mangled bus, bodies on the street and trapped inside the bus, the glass windows of both hotels and shops on the ground floor blown out, an eight-feet wide crater on the road and pieces of metal and glass littering the entire road.

He also reported that, as usual, Edhi ambulances were the first aid to get to the scene, and helped ferry the bodies of those killed and wounded to hospitals. But a number of people, including policemen from the nearby station, had also rushed to help in the rescue operations. It was these brave volunteers who pulled the survivors out of the wreckage of the bus.

In particular, he also saw one man in a light blue shirt and grey trousers, splattered with blood stains, who was barking orders to the gathering law enforcement personnel, asking for the area to be cleared to make way for the ambulances. This man had already pulled five severely wounded survivors from the bus, probably saving their lives.

The journalist initially thought the Pakistani-origin man was from a civil defence agency. But it soon became clear that he was merely a guest at one of the five-star hotels who had rushed out to help as soon as he heard the blast. When the journalist went up to talk to this man, who gave a graphic description of the carnage he witnessed inside the bus, it also became extremely obvious that the man was completely inebriated. In his traumatized and drunken state, he kept cursing the terrorists as well as the law enforcement personnel for not doing enough to prevent what had happened. ``What are they doing to my country!`` he kept shouting. Here was an unlikely hero, but a hero nonetheless.

Well put Ana. I know many Indians and non Palestinians are very disturbed by the power imbalances in the Occupied Territories.

oh ylh? Shut up about Palestine as well.

ylh #1,

can you stop acting like a freak? you need to take some yoga classes or needlepoint for beginners.

the Palestine issue is a major international issue, and everyone is entitled to their opinions regarding it. you`re derogatory stance on the issue is extremely childish.

you`re almost 22, not a dood peeta bigra hua bacha.

Sooo...from the interactions so far, do I understand that the only way we can be concerned about Palestinian statehood is if they had been concerned about `us`, or if it benefits us directly in some way? Verrry interrrresting.

Thanks for this piece Rehan..I had to read it more than once, but it was well worth it. In a city like Portland (a city I`m very familiar with)where people are able to reinvent themselves because they have the power and the resources to do so, the Occupied territories are a stark contrast in terms of power. I`m stating the obvious, but most of these media analysts, and those of us pretending to know what we talk about (no lack of pretenders on this board!)seem to ignore the fact that Palestinians have felt a sense of powerlessness because they have been dispossessed. Power does not come in the guise of suicide bombers, or Israeli tanks turning Ramallah into rubble. Or in controversial referendums. Power comes from being morally aware rather than bereft, from acknowledging differences, and finding peaceful paths that will make us stronger as people and nations. And by looking at Joe Sacco`s cartoons, and his thought-provoking questions, we can think of more questions, as well as search for answers.

F--k Palestine, Yasser? I think not. Because if that`s the way we feel, then we should all go f--k ourselves!

interesting

when India dissected Pakistan Arabs(PLO) said nothing. When we were winning in Kargil arab world sided with Hindus and asked us to solve problem by ``Talk`. Arafat is trechrous man. The greatest Muslim Imam Khomani was deceived by this short unshaved man. He said to Imam Khomani he is like father to him and turned around and kissed SADDAM. They were happy when Iraqis were butchering surprised Iranians. When Saddam invaded Quwait Arafat kissed Saddam and joined his gang. A dog biting feeding hand.When terrorist attack killed about 3000 in usa, palestanians went ballastic. Specially USA feeds the camps they live in and they enjoy slaughtering of americans. They acted as Fifth column in Quwait.I do not understand what We Pakistanis get by being over loyal to them. Let us have diplomatic relationship with israel then PLO will improve behaviour.I have sympaty for them and many others including our pakistanis. Leave PLO and their problems. We have no value. So shut up and let us do our work. There is no point in over working on PLO problems.

Why is it that every wannabe intellectual goody goody south asianist pakistani loves to write about Palestine..

F-ck Palestine...