Temporary Marriage in Islam Why are we so obsessed with an Islamic interpretation of everything we do? Why do we need God`s nod to legitimize things that our conscience tells us are wrong?

Doesnt our religion somewhere say that intensions are more important than the contextual pretext under which the act is committed. (Inna ma aamal ul binniyaat)

If Shia`s are happy doing mutah and feel they do no wrong - thats fine.

If Sunnis dont want to do it - thats fine too.

Why do we have the constant urge to correct everyone else when we openly profess not being an authority on religion.

Lets move on with times and start respecting one another - regardless of their beliefs, their interpreations, their sexual habits, etc. . Live & let live.

An honest, respectful unmarried sexual relationship is far better than one committed with the intensions to deceive God, or worse, people.

South Asian Earthquake: Don’t care… or don’t know? Beena

There is a great outpouring of earthquake related articles, especially on captive crowds - like chowk.com. I was interested to read if you had any cutting insights. Most of the stuff you talked about was already covered in ``Why Doesn`t the World Care?`` by Aamir Ibrahim - published on chowk on Nov 3.

nothing new - I`m afraid - saying the same thing to the same people isnt adding any value.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Thanks Parthaab.

However, Katrina was not a success story in terms of how it was handled by the govt. Rita was perhaps a better one - more hype created immediately and proactively and hence the damage was controlled more effectively.

Regardless of how Pakistani media may have acted in the first week (in terms of casualties) the world media, UN and other humanitarian agencies have been warning of the 3m homeless and the `second wave of deaths`. Sadly not much has been done - which reinforces the hypothesis of the article. Media - good or bad - is one of the key contributing factors.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 306

Dear Parthaab

just went over some sites of newspapers (Dec 27th, 28th, 2004). The death toll of Tsunami was initially about 13,000. Let me know if you have a source which quoted higher numbers.

Thanks.

Mistaken Identity some nicely drafted sentences in an otherwise unwieldy train of thoughts. cohesion becomes even more important in a short story and it seemed that you were wandering around too much.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 297

Dear Behram1,

As much as I`d like to disassociate myself from politicians I do find some similar backgrounds between them and Joe Public.

When I say they are from us, I mean that (some of them) grew up where I did, went to the same schools, played similar sports, cheered for the same teams, and thought very much like me (at one stage of our lives). I have some of my friends and acquantainces from Aitchison who are now either Ministers, MNA`s or advisors to the government. Is it the office that corrupts them or is it the corruption within them that seeks such offices? And how would I (or Joe Honest) act if given a similar chance? Though questions.

David Blunkett, a Secretary in Tony Blair`s government had to resign (again) for having a conflict of interest of an investment of 15,000 pounds in another firm. He was a politician but the people decided his fate. We as individuals in Pakistan need to demand similar accountability and that is what I mean by the individual taking more responsibilty about the state of our nation. We are not merely props in this national drama. Its time we take the leading roles.

How? I`m sure you have some good suggestions. Mine are Scream, Be Angry, be productive, be challenging. Be whatever we can be except being complacent and resigning.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 299

interesting thought. However, I think that in the case of Tsunami the casualty numbers kept on increasing. And in this article I used Tsunami as a bench mark for global aid generosity.

Notwithstanding, our PR and press need how to learn how to amass greater stickiness in its stories and the way it portrays them

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 291

Dear Faisaluno,

Having an opinion about the diaster is not a mutually exclusive exercise from fund raising (which I am also doing - didnt feel it merited an article). The intension was not to derail whatever good we are doing, nor to blame the victim, nor to win political points with goras in english press either, but to be a bit more objective about what can be expected from the world and why we must rely on our ourselves.

Moreso, the idea of publishing the article here was to use the chowk.com community as a sounding board to test my hypothesis, logic, facts, etc. - and that is precisely what you have provided (although it took me sometime to separate the wheat from the chaff). If I am wrong, I`ll acknoweldge and move on.

Now onto your other point about govt`s scorecard, contributions and unjust criticism`s against it. I am one of the few liberals who actually do support Musharraf (in the short term) but the fact of the matter is that we are painfully behind the required run rate (institutioally, economically, educationally, etc.). Exceptional cases of good people in some ministries and private sector is well noted but we need much more.

I am currently living abroad (lived in 3 countries in the last 5 years) and it sickens me to no end that we (Pakistan and Pakistani;s) have such a poor image around the world. And its not limited to the West. Our Muslim/ Arab friends dont want us either (other than a limited number of visas for toilet cleaners, road builders, and in rare cases mid management munshis). We need to start with brutal introspection, question our raison d`etre - not as Muslims but as Pakistanis. And when we start doing this there will be no short supply of criticism of the government, politicians, institutions. However, we need to add individual responsibility to the list. The politicians came from the people and we are the people.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 250

Dear Faisaluno,

When you are in a hole the best thing is to stop digging... cute. So are you lending a hand or closing the lid?

Firstly - the FDI issue and your mail 66. Yes Pakistan`s FDI has increased over the past three years. I was using the UN Conferenc on Trade and Development indicies which still puts Pakistan in the `underperformer` category, but factually speaking the investments are on the rise. Thank you for pointing this out.

Secondly - you mention in #250 ``yet in your post #233, you bizarrely claim that internal conflicts do not impact foreign perception``. Maybe I should have been more articulate. Pograms and insurgencies do affect image abroad just as internal problems do.

Thirdly - Indonesia`s global opinion. valid point, its image has deteriorated in the past 7 years but the fact of the matter is that despits JW Mariott, etc. it got about 4m tourists in 2003. So perhaps the perception is not yet at a tourist deterrent level. If 4m still do go there, they are attracted to the place and would have had a greater shot of developing a positive affinity. This impacts donor dollars, esp. at an individual level. This is where I was making a comparison to a non-tourist friendly environment of Pakistan.

You`ve made some good observations about the article at a micro level (baal ki khaal autarna) but I havent seen any successful shots at cracking the overall hypothesis on why the world doesnt care..?

Notwithstanding, thanks for your feedback and comments.

Aamir

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 236

Dear Shankar

I cant give a collective national opinion about what Pakistanis think about India, Kashmir, etc. but here is what most of the people I know think. And most of them are nationalistic Pakistani`s too.

We need to stop thinking about India at every single crossroad of our existance and focus on our internal challenges. We should look at some of the good things India has done (enviable IT exports, favorable global image, successful regional & global businesses, etc.) and learn from some lessons on things that didnt go too well. But quite honestly our competition should be ourselves; i.e. what Pakistan is capable of achieving rather than with India. And I dont think we are xenophobic to consider India wants to gobble us up. This is the 21st century we`re living in!

Personally I think we`ve made too much of the real estate issue called Kashmir. Its a political tool to fool the masses (perhaps from both sides) from asking more challenging questions about roti, kapra, makan. I`d prefer Kashmir be independent, or be a part of India (easily accessible to Pakistani Kashmiris) as long as Muslims there can live respectfully and peacefully rather than be in this constant turmoil of uncertainity, death, and depravation under the occupation of Pakistan (or India).

Pakistani leaders have often failed us, but there is no quick fix. Institutions need to be established, recognized and respected, education needs to be provided to all, women need to be emancipated, interpretation of Islam needs to be made more relevant, progressive and consistent with the times we live in. These things take time and given our runrate in the past 55 years Mushy cant pull a Shahid Afridi now - so I give him more credit than he gets from across the border and from my more liberal friends. The choice is not really between Mushy and a non-existant ideal but between him and a couple of proven (albeit, popular) failures.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 222

Dear Faisaluno,

The article was not talking about internal problems of Pakistan per se, but why the aid pouring is less than what others have gotten in similar situations. The examples you`ve given (of Sri Lanka & Indonesia) were internal conflicts, which do not generally result in individual, national or international humanitarian aid. Admittedly some of Pakistan`s internal problems have exacerbated its steady decline in the eyes of the world which has directly affected the opinion of other nations and people around the world and which has a direct affect on the aid received. But there are other reasons mentioned which have nothing to do with Pakistan`s internal conflicts.

Trivilazing the hypothesis of others as english medium brainlessness does not add to the credibility of your arguments anymore than your believing that you`re the only gifted Pakistani who could have thought of such (underwhelming) arguments.

Perhaps the reason why no one else jumped on this line of thinking is because such arguments were quite off-tangent to the discussion.

In another mail (#225) you referred to ``Sweden`s clockwork`` efficiencies. Perhaps you meant Switzerland?

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 215

So we give up? Call these people names, hang our heads down in shame of being part of a failed experiment, write a few blogs and move on? I know rhetoric is cheap and I myself feel fairly disgusted and frustrated by all of the things you mentioned. But we have no choice to keep hope alive.

Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things and good things dont die.

One step at a time, one day at a time keeps me going.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 212

Dear Behram1

Actually I am an image consultant for Musharraf. Just kiddin! No I am not his mouthpiece and was quite amused by your comments. I later saw parts of the interview and yes he did talk about the `tourist` angle. But then again, what I wrote wasn`t exactly rocket science.

We can talk about the part where you say ``we are not them``. Then who are we? And who are them? We need to take responsibility for our leaders and they of us. If they are not fit for running the country then it is our responsibility to get rid of them. Secondly, we are leaders at individual levels. I am the leader of my house (with my wife`s permission). We need to assume responsibility at whatever level we operate at. 10 years ago Musharraf did not think he`d be the president. 10 years from now I may be running the country. Sadly it may not happen but my point is that we need to accept responsibility for the mess we are in rather than disassociating ourselves because our forefathers or someone else created it in the first place.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 199

To Salim and rsridhar

Why let the opinions of others change you? I `ve followed up on the responses of this article because I wrote it and was at times quite disappointed by the anti-Pakistan sentiment expressed by many writes. Should this affect my friendship with my Indian friends? NO.

Also, Salim, what exactly is the `Pakistani elite` that you and some others have referred to and how has it turned you off?

I meet a lot of `once Pakistani fervents` who hold a bitter grudge against Pakistan and other Pakistanis and instead of lifting ourselves up we just try to put India, the West, and others down. It saddens me to see that we`ve thrown in the towel so easily and wandered off in a self destructive path. We are brutally honest in self criticism and we do quite well at it. But our jingoistic DNA comes in play when someone from across the border tells us the same thing. If we cant handle this heat lets talk about the weather instead. I`m sure there are a number of problems in India (poverty, political corruption, etc) but quite honestly I need to focus my energies in fixing Pakistan - not criticising India.

For whatever it is worth, I do admire the job Indians do at `nation building`. They stick for one another, esp. outside of India. We, Pakistanis, on the other hand complaint about our leaders, politicians, `elite`. They did not come from another planet. They are us and we are them.

Why Doesn’t the World Care? from AAMIR IBRAHIM

to Tahmud32 & Neitzen

Pakistanis are extremely hospitiable and overwhemled the cricketing visitors last year. I agree. At the same time whenever I visited India I was generously welcomed, not despite being a Pakistan, but because of being one.

I find it hard and disturbing to believe that politics, religion and point scoring force us from not doing things that we natuarally want to do - be friendly and hospitable. Some of my best friends are Indians but I do not feel compelled to test this friendship by dancing on the limits of their understanding, patience and generosity. Given our history, we need to take it one day at a time. Today should be a `lets help Pakistan` day -- without risk or reward!!

enough about helicopters, jihadis`, mullahs and POK, et all. move on....

Why Doesn’t the World Care? Re: # 43
from AAMIR IBRAHIM

Accept that the reality is not great and we (Pakistanis) need to acknowledge it and then to constructively improve it. On the other hand I do not believe it is quite as bleak as you point it out to be (esp. ur comments about the rich and educated)