Explaining it to an American Friend Why are they people protesting in Pakistan against Pakistani government`s decision to support USA? Lets forget religion for the time being and analyse the situation. On one hand, you have Afghanis who we have supported for the past 20 years and have absorbed millions of them. We had millions of people who were untrained and uneducated which led to religious extremism, moral decay and economic breakdown. Talebans also threatened to invade us if we dared to side with USA. On the other hand we have USA, which always uses us but is the super power and can make our life a whole lot easier if only our dumb leaders play their cards right. It is pretty simple to choose who we should side with.

As far as the religion is concerned, does any of these protestors even know what ISlam stands for. It surely doesn`t stand for killing thousands of inncoent ppl. It doesn`t stand for dividing ppl up on basis of religion to meet your own advantage. Then what the hell do these protestors want. If they like Afghanistan and its government so much, they are welcome to move there and let us get on with our lives. They can create their own little `utopian islamic government`, break statues and feel powerful, but should leave us well alone.

Implications for India As far as I can tell, India has always been very proactive at protecting ITS OWN INTERESTS. Once again I have full confidence in Indian government to pull through this crisis in most magnificient way. More power to them.

Caught In Between This may not be an very eloquent piece of work, but at least it is honest. For years Pakistanis have had to pay for our government`s interference in Afghanistan. Neither our economy nor our society has escaped unscathed. And after all our support, the Afghan government is threatening us with invasion if we co-operate with USA. My first reaction was..How dare they!! But then I realized that we the people of Pakistan, with our prejudices and hatred, our greed and selfishness , have made it so easy for every Tom, dick and Harry to threaten us. Our own weaknesses and flaws are being used as a weapon against us. This is not the first time Afghan regime has threatened us. I remember that in early 90’s we were going to close down our borders with Afghanistan because of the huge influx of refugees due to the civil war. I remember that the Afghan government has threatened us with terrorism then. (Please correct me if I am wrong).

What my point is, that it’s about time we Pakistanis get our act together. For once we need to forget who belongs to Jamat-e-Islami or to PPP or numerous other political and religious parties. For once just let us be Pakistanis. If Pakistan doesn’t exist then neither would our right to practice our individual religious or political ideologies.

I also wish that the Ambassador of Pakistan had spoken up in the past few days to answer to Americans’ misconception about us...

Open Letter to O. B. Laden Talibans are not supporting Bin Laden because he is taking advantage of their unwritten law. Talibans supporting him because Bin laden has money and followers. Talibans need him to be able to fight against the Northern Alliance.

Every Nightmare has a Reason Farzana - very impressive work. Especially the following:

Someone said, “Yeh to hote rehta hai”.

We in Indo-Pak have become so de-sensitized to violence and death. For us its an everyday affair and thats so pathetic.

Jay- Where did you get that news piece about Laskar-e-Jabar from. Who are they and how are they going to throw acid with such heightened security. Anyway thats for them to figure and for us not to care about.

Living in an Object Oriented World I have read the article twice at least..and I just don`t get it. Why is the human mind being compared to how a computer is programmed? The author needs to get a life. Maybe take up cooking or art classes to get his mind off computer programming.

Random Thoughts From a Far Away Land I will always miss Pakistan. However, I want to totally forget the existence of narrow minded, intolerant, prejudiced people who form 80% of Pakistani population. People who have no manners or ethics, those who may have a master`s degree but their language is more crude than a common truck driver. The reason I can`t even imagine going back is because I don`t want to deal with pakistanis who think that it is their birth right to insult and judge every person they come across. I like living in US, because I find americans to be more ethical helpful and respectful than the `self-proclaimed muslims` back home. I know I have never done anything to improve the pakistani society and so have no right to criticise it, however I am complaining bcs they have made my `home` the most unattractive place for me. I can live with low wages and riots but I can`t live with the pakistani society.