Serial Killers...The Dark Side of Humanity It is a good article though I feel your research is not so thorough. We cannot say definitely that there are more serial killers in Pakistan than America. The first thing a researcher learns is to collect data. I am afraid we do not have that for Pakistan. We do not know the actual number of rapes or killings as the investigation is shoddy and crimes are under reported or mis reported. Serial killers mean that there needs to be a estalished pattern of murders. We do not have that in Pakistan.
The biggest difference in my humle opinion is not that US produces more and Pakistan produces less but the plain fact that how much of it is getting reported and if reported then how accurately reported and investigated.

Ahmadis – The Forgotten People Good article,

For the record who are we to judge who is a muslim and whose not. I have seen Ahmedis say the same kalma, observe the same namaz, the same roza so how can we say they are not muslims. Maybe we can call them another sect like Ismaelees or Wahabis.
I learned my quran and namaz from an Ahmedi so does that make me a Sunni or an Ahmedi?
I wonder are the muslims afraid or are their beliefs so weak that they have to persecute an entire community?

A Thousand Cuts
The Waris Dirie Story
(c) Reader`s Digest



Becoming a Woman

In a nomadic culture like the one I was raised in, there is no place for an unmarried woman, so mothers feel it is their duty to ensure their daughters have the best possible opportunity to get a husband.

And since the prevailing wisdom in Somalia is that there are bad things between a girl`s legs, a woman is considered dirty, oversexed and unmarriageable unless those parts--the clitoris, the labia minora, and most of the labia majora-are removed. Then the wound is stitched shut, leaving only a small opening and a scar where the genitals had been-a practice called infibulation.

Paying the gypsy woman for this circumcision is one of the greatest expenses a household will undergo, but is considered a good investment. Without it the daughters will not make it onto the marriage market.

The actual details of the ritual cutting are never explained to the girls-it`s a mystery. You just know that something special is going to happen when your time comes. As a result, all young girls in Somalia anxiously await the ceremony that will mark their becoming a woman. Originally the process occurred when the girls reached puberty, but through time it has been performed on younger and younger girls.

One evening when I was about five, my mother said to me, ``Your father ran into the gypsy woman. She should be here any day now.``

The night before my circumcision, the family made a special fuss over me and I got extra food at dinner. Mama told me not to drink too much water or milk. I lay awake with excitement, until suddenly she was standing over me, motioning. The sky was still dark. I grabbed my little blanket and sleepily stumbled along after her.

We walked out into the brush. ``We`ll wait here,`` Mama said, and we sat on the cold ground. The day was growing lighter; soon I heard the click-click of the gypsy woman`s sandals. Then, without my seeing her approach, she was right beside me.

``Sit over there.`` She motioned toward a flat rock. There was no conversation. She was strictly business.

Mama positioned me on the rock. She sat behind me and pulled my head against her chest, her legs straddling my body. I circled my arms around her thighs. She placed a piece of root from an old tree between my teeth. ``Bite on this.``

Mama leaned over and whispered, ``Try to be a good girl, baby. Be brave for Mama, and it`ll go fast.``

I peered between my legs and saw the gypsy. The old woman looked at me sternly, a dead look in her eyes, then foraged through an old carpet-bag. She reached inside with her long fingers and fished out a broken razor blade. I saw dried blood on the jagged edge. She spit on it and wiped it on her dress. While she was scrubbing, my world went dark as Mama tied a blindfold over my eyes.

The next thing I felt was my flesh being cut away. I heard the blade sawing back and forth through my skin. The feeling was indescribable. I didn`t move, telling myself the more I did, the longer the torture would take. Unfortunately, my legs began to quiver and shake uncontrollably of their own accord, and I prayed, Please, God, let it be over quickly. Soon it was, because I passed out.

When I woke up, my blindfold was off and I saw the gypsy woman had piled a stack of thorns from an acacia tree next to her. She used these to puncture holes in my skin, then poked a strong white thread through the holes to sew me up. My legs were completely numb, but the pain between them was so intense that I wished I would die.

My memory ends at that instant, until I opened my eyes and the woman was gone. My legs had been tied together with strips of cloth binding me from my ankles to my hips so I couldn`t move. I turned my head toward the rock; it was drenched with blood as if an animal had been slaughtered there. Pieces of my flesh lay on top, drying in the sun.

Waves of heat beat down on my face, until my mother and older sister, Aman, dragged me into the shade of a bush while they finished making a shelter for me. This was the tradition; a little hut was prepared under a tree, where I would rest and recuperate alone for the next few weeks.

After hours of waiting, I was dying to relieve myself. I called my sister, who rolled me over on my side and scooped out a little hole in the sand. ``Go ahead,`` she said.

The first drop stung as if my skin were being eaten by acid. After the gypsy sewed me up, the only opening left for urine-and later for menstrual blood-was a minuscule hole the diameter of a matchstick.

As the days dragged on and I lay in my hut, I became infected and ran a high fever. I faded in and out of consciousness. Mama brought me food and water for the next two weeks.

Lying there alone with my legs still tied, I could do nothing but wonder, why? What was it all for? At that age I didn`t understand anything about sex. All I knew was that I had been butchered with my mother`s permission.

I suffered as a result of my circumcision, but I was lucky. Many girls die from bleeding to death, shock, infection or tetanus. Considering the conditions in which the procedure is performed, it`s surprising that any of us survive


http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/~pine/Phil110/waris-dirie.html

A Thousand Cuts HI, Hello people,

This article is about FGM and it would be appropriate to have some constructive thought into this matter. Words alone are words until they are turned to action.
So please everyone, in your own little way make a difference.
Stop name calling and petty insults and focus on the topic of the article.

A Thousand Cuts Jawahara Jee,
I just love your work. Most of your work is heart wrenching.

I worked with a victim of FGM a few years ago and to this day I cannot forget the horror and pain I felt when she was telling her story. Her eyes reflected her pain, hurt, horror and disbelief and she kept repeating why me? I just kept thinking she is so brave to have survived that ordeal. This article just opened up the flood gates again.
The thing that I realize now is that she had the courage to go on with her life even though such a barbaric practice just crushes your soul.

Thankyou for writing on this topic. Hopefully one day we can get rid of this barbaric, heinous and cruel punishment of women.Their only crime is to be born as women.

Internet Relationships – Blessing or Curse? I just wanted to add a little bit to your very informative article. Thankyou for bringing this topic to the forefront.
Internet is another medium of communication but the only difference is we dont know who and what is on the other end of the computer screen. We protect ourselves against strangers and dont open our doors if we dont know. On the other hand we rarely protect ourselves from the strangers we willingly invite in our homes thorugh the fantastic medium of internet.
Internet relations can be beneficial in the respect that you can reach a much wider audience but in the same breath it can be dangerous if we are not careful. There are certain do`s and dont`s of internet dating.
1. Never tell the other person your real name and phone number. You will be surprised how easy it is to fill in the blanks.
2. Always be on your guard. Always ask pertinent questions.
3. Dont be afraid to question the other person.
4. Never send your pic. You dont know where your pic may end up.
5. Dont brag unless you want the other person to brag and lie too.
6. Make sure you know what your motive is for internet dating.
7. You can gauge the intentions of the other person by his/her bahavior. Some kind of decorum must be maintained while chatting with the other person.

It is important to realise that internet is not a magical port of unheard magical destinations rather a journey which begins and ends with the communication of two people. Who these two people are is up to you to guess.

Love Affair Hi Amrita,
Just moved to New York city so like a small fish in a big tank I am quite lost these days. I am looking forward to reading some great stuff on chowk. Thankyou for inquiring about me.

Hi to everybody on chowk!!!!

Love Affair Love it!
Absolutely brilliant!

Is it love relishing in the stolen moments waiting until the next encounter?
Is love now synonymous with sex?
What is love and how it consumes us, rendering us a helpless captive to our own emotions.

Katrina: An Abdication of Responsibility Nola.com.....

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, ``What is not working, we’re going to make it right.``

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a ``Today`` show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: ``Buses! And gas!`` Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, ``We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.``

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, ``You’re doing a heck of a job.``

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.


http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076464

Katrina: An Abdication of Responsibility Temporal jee thankyou for writing about Katrina as it surely is a disaster of great magnitude.

My parents live in Baton Rouge , Louisiana 60 miles from New Orleans and I was there the weekend Katrina hit . It was awful , we had some many families arriving from New Orleans at our house who had lost everything. No jobs, no homes they are now forced to move to other cities to find home and work.
Thank God nothing happened to us, we had no power for 3 days and that made us realize how insignificant we are with all our big ideas and talks. I am just grateful we all are ok and praying for those who are not.
To see something like this with my own eyes made me realize the most important thing is health and life everything else is insignificant.
All those people who are still living at my parents house dont know what will happen to them and their families.
My mom told me yesterday in Baton Rouge gas is scarce, roads are overcrowded, Grocery stores are half empty as baton Rouge now had to provide relief for thousands of evacuees.

May God keep us all safe. ( Amen)

Nikka’s Pakistan Rozaiba,

Good article.
The comparison of Nikka to Pakistan was brilliant. It was easy to read and amusing yet at the same time the underlying criticism was unmistakable and superb.

Love Among The Ruins Sheema,
Welcome to chowk!
I loved the poem, simple,expressive and touching.

It is easy to lose yourself in the daily grind of life along with whatever you deeply care for.

Emotions are very tricky especially love either it is there or its not.

sajal

Fleshened Bones Hi Farzana,

After a long absence I read your piece today and it completely blew me off.
It is a powerful potent dose of reality which we do not like to hear hence the lahul from not so truly.

Are all Women Witches? Farzana,

when men are aggressive they are called motivated but when a woman is aggressive she is called a`` b***h``. What a double standard.

I believe women have extraordinary powers and strengths and it is evident in the daily lives of women. Maybe women are called witches because of their superior endurance, higher threshhold to pain or maybe simply because men dont want to understand them.
So to call women witches is unreasonable when they dont want to use their pea sized brains.

What do u think?

Muslims Not Married in America Fazeel,
Welcome to chowk!

To create a happy, loving home both men and women have to work ``together``.

You can not put more blame on the woman than the man, it is an equal task or commitment. I agree women are becoming more educated and there is a lot of confusion as to what to expect and not to expect but it is not only on the part of women but men also.
Men are confused too , changing times, values , attitudes, economics make it difficult for both to adjust. A sensible couple is one which understands each other and is ready to respect each other and stick to each other through thick and thin.

I am sorry to say that but you have written an article which is extremely biased towards women. I will tell you this men are not so perfect either, so maybe you need to put on different glasses to look at men.

Divorce is a terrible reality, it simply means two people cannot live together for whatever reasons. You are an educated man and I am sure you know that we cannot blame just one person for it. We have to look at all angles and then determine.

Life happens in varying shades of gray and is not just black and white.

Tallat sahib,
Informative article,

Education is the basic backbone of any country . The problem is that the educational system of Pakistan is mainly dependant upon the political and economic changes in the country.

Apart from all the reasons debated above, one more thing to be considered is the system of assessment and evaluation in Pakistan. The main purpose of evaluation is to see if the system is doing what it is supposed to do and what needs to be done to the meet the objectives. There are numerous problems related to teaching, evaluating and assessment techniques.
Do we have a specified objective?
Do we have adequate resources?
Do we have educated and trained teachers?
Do we have effective Instructional strategies?
Do we have periodic evaluations of teachers, curriculum and exams?

There needs to be competency based instructional and evaluational programs that measure the competencies of the teachers, students and the educational standards. There should be a condition, performance and standard. The level of performance should measure knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis and evaluation of the student and the teachers.