Where Billions Vanish Viewer:

I think he did warn on Chowk. Read this from his 2005 article.......


PROJECTS GONE ASTRAY

On June 25, 2005 the HEC chairman announced that the Higher Education Commission has sanctioned 180 million rupees ($3 million) for the establishment of a 5 MeV tandem Van de Graaf accelerator to be housed at the National Center for Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University. He described it as a "national facility" that will "accelerate the generation of competent scientific and technical manpower within the country".

For those familiar with the field, this is nonsense. Such Van de Graaf machines were the mainstay of research in physics seventy years ago. They are useless for cutting edge science research today. They are, at best, museum pieces.

The reader, who wishes to see what the developed world is doing with such equipment, should visit the website:
www.its.caltech.edu/~arice/tandem.html. This contains an obituary, written many years ago, at Caltech: "After 38 years of service to the Nuclear Astrophysics and Material Science communities, [Caltech’s tandem Van de Graaf accelerator] facility has closed. Sorry to see the old machines fade away. This one had been very good to us. Not putting it too delicately; the machine was cut up and sold for scrap." That scrap -- or more likely scrap from elsewhere -- is now headed for Quaid-e-Azam University where it will add to other scrap imported over the decades.

Still more inexplicable wastage: the HEC chairman says that another 164 million rupees will be spent on an experimental physics laboratory at QAU.
Alas, no researcher there -- who are my colleagues -- acknowledges being informed, much less consulted on the purpose and nature of the laboratory.

The department’s chairman alone admitted knowledge of the project, but flatly refused to divulge details. A pessimistic conclusion is that, as in the past, these millions will also prove to be highly enriching but not to science in Pakistan.

Where Billions Vanish Mr. Hoodbhoy comes out clear in this conflict as is evident from the response of Mr. Riazuddin. However, Mr. Riazuddin's position is not as clear as he sounds as the letter clearly is giving a green flag for the purchase.

He had no Choice! Shame on you for not being able to understand your petty father's psyche.

Pakistan\'s Universities - Problems and Solutions Nice article prof hboy.

I think you fundamentally differ from approach of HEC by believing more in bottom up approach rather than top down. I liked your idea of teacher training and using wisdom more than money.

But at times, it also seems like you have a personal prejudice against HEC or its personnel.

Psychology of Men\'s Honour and Women\'s Sexuality Dr. Sb,

Very accurate analysis of what is wrong with Eastern Muslim men when they think of their daughters'/sisters' sexuality. I can totally understand because I have lived that life myself and it is usually a tedious process by which you free yourself from some of that thinking background. I agree that the govt. of Canada should try to offer easy to access solutions for such problems.

While you did lay out the psychological micro factors involved in developing this particular type of psychic disorder, you did not emphasize on this other dimension that these ideas are institutionalized and perpetuated by marrying them with otherwise different concepts such as 'male ego' or 'masculinity' or 'family honor'. These marriage serves as a neat pretext in establishing an environment where women in the family are controlled and exploited.

It is this perpetuation that members of society who are not the direct agents of such oppression often find themselves to be instruments helping it too. Even some mothers are also instrumental in curbing the sexual freedoms of their kids.

And yes, I also feel genuine pity for interacters #3 and #4.

Alcohol Use and Abuse And by the way, this new web 2.0 look of chowk is simply disgusting. As if, they were given the task to make this website horrible.

e.g. articles and comments are not on the same page. So much stuff is crammed in one place, giving me an irritating feeling. Font sizes have gone small. Ads are taking too much space on the right side. Everything is in narrow columns, there's no 'width' I felt comfortable with.

May be its only me....

Alcohol Use and Abuse Dr. Sohail,

Nice informative article.

When I came across your article, without giving a careful look, I thought it would be discussing the enigma of Pakistani people in their dealing with alcohol. I think a lot can to be said about how alcohol was demonized slowly after the gora left our country, putting 'taboot mein aakhri keel' in Zia's era, so that people like me were raised knowing that it is the worst thing in the world a person could use. I think such a demonized view of alcohol (which is just a simple chemical) affects children's psychology in Pakistan in a very destructive way, espcially in the way they judge people (or nations) who have something to do with alcohol.

So, how about an article about that?

Seven Causes of Human Suffering drsohail,

I liked this line in your piece:

"For example a black working class lesbian woman might struggle on four fronts and suffer multiple disadvantages with overlapping impacts."

I agree with the list of issues you have compiled. Some other problems we face are tradition and growth fetish.

Nice article, even though there's nothing new in it but we need such iterations until sufficient awareness is there.

Rest in Peace Pakistan (1947-1974) My Dear YLH,

I think it should be too hard for you to realize that the real hero in the pakistan movement and the circus to this day has been ALLAH, the all mighty and his creator PBUH. Poor Quaid-e-Azam has been a mere pawn in facilitating what had been written all over the wall. He was probably having too much of fantacies by imagining that he will create a secular country in the name of pakistan.

Quite frankly, you seem to be just like muslim conspiracy theorist who believes in the beauty of his religion and throws the blames of reality over the conspiracies of Yahood-o-Hunood.

Accepting Death Mark,

I can relate somewhat to your experience in trying to reconcile realities of living bodies and the fables of creation. In particular, I used to think questions like `why is it that I get a nail back if I lose it, or blood if I donate it but if my limb is chopped, it doesn`t grow back`. It was only when I knew that everything happens under evolution of economy, I got a satisfying answer. In this sense, religion which is given credit for absorbing the anguish actually creates much of it by behind its lies of creation.

Indeed, living with knowing that one has to die is a strange thing.

The General vs. the Judge Salim Chuhan,

You must be a muhajir to say things you run around saying on this board, or there can be no other way.........

Its strange how colour of your chamri determines your views, even when the rest of the world is singing another tone. Have some sanity man, don`t be fooled by the origin of your genes....

Home is where the heart is #13

``you feel more at home on the road``

I liked this part.

When I went to pakistan to visit a few months ago after many years, I stayed with my relatives and staying with them was a mess. You cannot force them to change their ways for your short visit but you yourself can never be comfortable with that. So, yeah, I felt more at home on the road some times.

I feel that if I am to return to pakistan, I will have the responsibility of creating a situation for me in which I don`t feel awkward. I cannot just have a bunch of expectations and then complain when they aren`t honored. After all, there is no god up there with a job to fix things for you. A broken thing is a broken thing until somebody fixes it.

Home is where the heart is Re: # 10 Can`t completely understand the point in `ought to feel home`. You feel home when you feel like you do. There are no shoulds, woulds, oughts. Your culture is what you feel is your culture. While almost always, you will have influences of your culture of origin but you are never condemned to belong to any specific culture by any morality. Your culture is a combination of the influences you volunteer to incorporate and the new dimensions you create yourself.

For example, it is a part of my culture of origin to say a phrase which translates into `peace be upon him` after somebody says the name of the prophet of islam. I invented it to be my personal culture to say `piece be upon him` (what type of piece is not specified). So you see my point, your culture is your culture and nobody else has it.

Home is where the heart is This article inspires interesting questions. I am still confused about where my home is.

For now, I live in an apartment. Sometimes I think, if I buy a house on mortgage, I might find my home. Sometimes I think, if I go back to pakistan, I will find my home. But then, I might not feel home there because of the shit-free life I am used to here.

I feel that if you leave a country with a rotten soul like pakistan at an age of 23, you are making yourself homeless for the rest of your life.

But definitely, Pakistan (place where I grew up) is my dearest past home.

150 Years: Recounting Untold History This article is written from muslim perspective only. It seems like the author has made the choice to glorify Islam and Muslims before going into the actual events and analyzing them. Rhetoric like this can only sound good to muslim (not my kind though) ears.

The author is missing the real purpose here.

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth Re: # 168

Urstruly,

What would it take for you to believe that I am actually an angel in man`s disguise who is policing chowk, spying for my boss (the omnipotent) who has promised me jannat for this despicable act of ratting on my friends?

And that two years after today a big `garam aalu` is going to hit this earth from outer space killing all the jinns on the planet and solving the energy crisis we have today and that a goat will be born in near future whose horns will be used to cure any type of cancer and the world is in fact resting on the horns of a cow ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................