2005 UK General Elections Re: # 27

Theo Van Gogh

Why are you so hell-bent on singling out one religion, ethnicity, cultural background, namely the Muslim Pakistani community and puking all your racist hatred upon it ? What has furnished in you all this ill-feeling toward Muslims ? Are you in this forum to make a positive contribution or merely polemicize anger and prejudice ? My suspicions lean towards the verity that you are merely a rabble-rouser and like to stir trouble, as others in this forum have suggested.

It is due to biased one-sided prejudices like yours that Asians in Britain are in schism. If you so ardently advocate a multicultural template, as you do in one of your previous interacts, then why demonize it by being a trouble-maker ?

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 8

Labyrinth

Your “Brummien” point of view hits the nail on the head with meticulous precision. Labour, in Birmingham and elsewhere, takes a leaner slant on immigration and Visa processing, therefore remains a vote-winner amongst ethnic minorities. As for Galloway, he took a bold stance and his actions righteously earn him approbation amongst voters throughout the UK and the Commonwealth.

Only one point puzzles me in your reasoning, Salma Yaqoob`s laudable anti-war stance is exemplary, how is she pinching you by becoming a lady which you despicably hate ? Is it because of her bold stand ?

Or the truth resonating in her vocal chords ?

Labyrinth, without seeking to flog a dead-horse, was it truly necessary to unilaterally invade Iraq without appropriate UN sanctions? Surely unilateralism is a malady that plagues our society: a dire infringement for social development?

Weapons of mass destruction, as if by a Houdini-magic wand vanished into thin air? They were never found. Labyrinth a stark reality is that the weapons didn`t exist and were largely (if not totally) destroyed during the 1991 Gulf War.

We need gutsy spokeswomen like Salma Yaqoob to neutralize a male-laden neo-imperialist political landscape fraught with bravado.

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 16

Arjun you observe

``Pakis lag behind hindus and sikhs in every field and your main issue is the war in Iraq and the Kashmir ``cause``

Do I detect a ``tinge of Hindutva agenda against Muslims`` ?

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 11

Theo Van Gogh,

You insolently pick on an entire Pakistani community residing in Birmingham based on a few mischievous misfits being convicted of electoral fraud and criminal activity regarding postal ballots. Clearly these misfits deserve sanctions.

However don’t simplistically over-egg the pudding by branding the “entire community” in Birmingham as “fraudsters”. Your labels and prejudices are all too transparent and do not hold sway amongst this audience.

Seems you crave the attention, so bask in your misplaced wisdom and cosmetic glory.

The crimson sun will set on its ubiquitous inequity.

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 10

B Babu you raise some constructively healthy issues. You asked me to name you “one” top UK-based technology firm. I will push the envelope much further and mention “entire” British industries, namely biotech and pharma, which have technology as their handmaiden and are fusing cutting-edge science to revolutionize the health of humanity at the threshold of the 21st century.

Babu, a much-discussed symbol of the UK`s entrepreneurial renaissance is the so-called “Cambridge Phenomenon” - a marriage of science and technology based enterprises mushroomed in and around Cambridge University. This cluster aka the ``Cambridge Science Park`` is blessed with razor-edge information technology, both hardware and software, and several of the new firms enjoy close links to leading universities; A case in point is Herman Hauser, championing Acorn Computers, a personal computer manufacturer, who innovatively worked at the Cavendish laboratory, and is recognized amongst friends and foes as a doyen of his trade.

British universities and government research laboratories have a stupendous track-record in the sciences on which biotechnology is based. This is crucial because in biotechnology, to a greater extent than in semiconductors or electronics, commercial success depends on an intimate continuum between corporate-based research, due-dilligence and science.

Second, biotechnology is inextricably linked to pharmaceuticals, and in the latter, the UK is comfortably nestled amongst the creme de la creme.

Well perched on an entrepreneurial apex.

Thanks in part to a favorable regulatory regime which lubricates the wheels for incentives and innovative research, there are strong nationally-owned companies such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline as well as an overabundance of foreign outfits which have located research and production facilities in the UK.

Skills have been spruced-up over many years by the pharmaceutical industry - for example, in clinical testing, highly relevant to humanity`s future. The big pharmaceutical companies are vital customers and partners for biotechnology firms, nourishing and feeding off each other.

The success of this and other Cambridge firms engagingly sees “Silicon Fen” not as a rival to Silicon Valley, but a complement, where cross-Atlantic information-sharing has been second to none .

As made clear earlier to Cayenne, I do not for a nano-second deny American leadership in technology/electronics which has its nucleus in the sheer size of the domestic consumer market, extensive White House support emboldened through the Pentagon`s defence programme, a sector you were nippy to pin-point.

US technology is oxygenized by intense internal competition, the anti-monopoly laws on operating systems are instructive, and a set of supportive institutions which include a robust science base, easy interchange of personnel between the IV League and Wall Street, and a gargantuan, albeit hobbled, venture capital industry.

Babu what you do renege to observe is that the UK has witnessed a biotechnology/pharmaceutical renaissance, acknowledged by leading technologists, scientists and analysts, which may not be as deep-seated as in the US , but is profound nonetheless.

Before dismissing the US` Trans-Atlantic rival/partner do acquiesce to these milestones.

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 6

Arjun

Despite your signalling radar, what you should be detecting is a ``tinge of praise`` for the boys of Bangalore.

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 3

Cayenne

Let us refrain from “Eminemishly” tit-for-tatting at one another. Surely Chowk is too mature a forum for school-boy scoundrel antics to be deployed. Too facile a game to play.

A few corrections are in order. From where did your cerebral cortex assume that I claim myself to be “superiour” to you? Or anyone else for that matter? Stop throwing assumptions from thin air.

For they wither like the aged leaves of autumn.

This is not an ego-battle on an 8 mile road. The problem with your “plain-speak” is that it is raw over-simplification ebbed in error. Let’s be pedantic: Britain’s population is not 50 million as you conveniently conjecture but 60 million. Asians form not 2% of the entire British population but 3.2%, including multi-cultural variants such as myself.

Your maladroit history lecture suggests a 19th century Golden Age for Britannia, when, let me enlighten you, British dexterity flaunted its muscle in the 20th century !! Get those facts straight-wired into your cranium.

You anxiously quote American prowess, which I never deny: however whilst so doing you hasten your over-stretched belt to cite MG Rover. That is meager and portrays a faddish example of you name-dropping “one firm” just because you pressingly picked up an FT and doggedly browsed it after a couple of years in the lurch.

Your naïveté overlooks the verity that for every MG Rover there is an Enron Corp., Tyco International Ltd. and WorldCom Inc, degradingly entangled in accounting scrape despite the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

There exist a plethora of British firms who are fiscally sound, solvent, exhibit profitability, liquidity and a healthy capital structure.

Stop playing the “Self-Victimization” card. I will no longer waste my time. I have bigger fish to fry in the ocean of life. For the record labeling “Britain as an irrelevant island full of irrelevant people” IS RACIST to anyone possessing an atom of IQ.

Cayenne this is not an EGO-GAME. If you do childishly want to flaunt your final word go ahead and brazenly sooth that entrapped insecurity.

For it too one day will melt in a molten sky.

2005 UK General Elections Re: # 1

Cayenne

Your sweepingly grandiose myopia such as “Britain is an irrelevant island full of irrelevant people” smacks of racist xenophobia. You are single-handedly tarring the brush of all the Muslims and South Asians with dual identity who live on this island. Who bequeath themselves with a British as well as an Asian background, and form an imperative entrepreneurial backbone to the spine of the UK .

Admittedly not all of Great Britain`s policies are well-perceived or garnered in equilibrium, but cease living in an Elysium. Which country, in the comity of international relations is perfect?

Adultery Anonymous Farzana Versay,

Muslims have Iman that marriage is contractual, with ensuing rights and obligations, which can be revoked, providing the tapestry of circumstances merit. Admissability of Talaq is often left to the arbitrary discretion of judges. Hindus extol marriage as a sanctity, never to be toyed around with. Do you reckon South Asian legal systems merit ammendment to accomodate more lax laws on divorce, as a pre-emption and prevention of looming adultery on the horizon ?

A few more points. The option of Talaq, legally permissible under Shariah is an avenue open to all, where a divorced wife is entitled to maintenance and child support. Divorce ofcourse is a legal avenue often wrought with other social stigmata in developing nations like Pakistan and India. So solace can be nurtured through the auspices of unique workable formulas between couples themselves, as per suggested in your opus. Could you extol certain examples ?

Adultery anonymous makes me distinctly reminiscent of the enthralling Khalil Gibran. Often adultery takes place because spouses don`t give each other the sanctity of ``breathing space``. I share with you a masterpiece by Khalil Gibran:


``You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other`s cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other`s keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other`s shadow. ``



Farzana a last question to you: do you feel that if enough ``ventilation`` was allowed between spouses, as Khalil Gibran titillatingly recommends, there would be less recourse to adultery? Another question: ``Can you name a few ideas of how ``ventillation`` and ``breathing`` space can be ploughed to yield a more promising harvest for the marriage crop ?

By no means an eternal crop.

Outside the Military Hospital Re: # 3

Beejay

I feel God`s forgiveness is unquestionable. The stark contrast between the ``haves`` and the ``have-nots`` is foremost a product of a fatalistic fever gripping and ravaging the ``soulless`` leaders of emerging markets. To a large extent we are the architects of our destiny, and the vagaries of inequity prostitute nations not due to Divine Will, or the lack thereof, but remain a catalyst of deep-seated underlying geo-political ills.

It is an open debate, to fellow ``chowkis`` as to how we might balance these ills ? Rather than fatalistically finger-pointing at Divinity. Which these days seems so much a-la-mode.

Outside the Military Hospital Bina Shah

Your piece “Outside the military hospital” has ounces of compellingly inveigling allure as it explores the schism between the “haves” and “have-nots” in the “Land of the Pure”. You acidly portray the power and income disparity between rulers and the ruled.

However on a rather more instructive note, could you enticingly suggest ways of bridging this all-pervasive schism of justice ? Surely the sun, in its infinite unkindness, can find ways to evaporate inequities?

Parents and the Pill Zehra Rizvi,

The rapport you nurture with your parents, principally with your father, make me reminiscent of a gem-stone once written by the mythical Khalil Gibran. Next time round Hajj, when you are left with a debacle of dancing the perilous dance with your dad, if any questions are aroused or blurted, during an engagingly gruesome treadmill regime, your lips can quench their thirst by lusciously pouring out:

“Aboo: Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life`s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer`s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies,
So He loves also the bow that is stable.”

These Gibranesque gems are bound to have the steeliest of resolves melt like cocoa. Whether or not a Cappuccino smile ensues remains to be seen.

Another dance.

For another time ?

Which Road will the Pope Take? Adeel Khan:

“East is East, West is West, never the twain shall meet”. Rudyard Kipling

This myopic phrase runs in tandem with Samuel Huntington`s jibes concerning “A Clash of Civilizations”. Admittedly events in the comity of international relations have exacerbated such anorexic trepidation. This creepy foreboding should be dispelled and redressed.

Turkey, in this regard stands as a litmus test. A reverential bridge between the Orient and the Occident. Tradition and Modernity. Islam and Christianity.

My name is Ozer, and Im half-Turkish. I would like to expand on a theme referred to in your revealing article: The EU and its rapport vis-à-vis Turkey. Although Turkey has walked the tight-rope to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria, Brussels is still reticently lukewarm about signaling the green light to accession, due to various imperatives: mostly strategic and economic.

I feel that Turkey should opt for the “politics of variable geometry” with the EU, signaling a moderated yet close bi-lateral partnership agreement, where she gets to pick certain policy undercurrents without sheepishly bowing down to every Eurocratic whim. Fat cats cozily sitting in Brussels should not eclipse Turkey`s foreign policy flexibility.

Turkey cannot entirely forego Europe, but she can strategically re-align herself with Asia and the Middle East including a de jure rapprochement with the Developing 8 of which Pakistan is a signatory. Turkey stands a lot to gain through the policy of re-alignment: namely an entrée to gas pipelines in Central Asia, vital networks to the oil-rich Gulf states and a strengthening within the OIC via her jealously guarded links to NATO.

That way the Turkish vessel can sail both sides of the blue Bosphorus: Asia and Europe. Anchoring your ship along the beautiful tides of the Turkish Bosphorus requires no sanction. From no one. The limitless existence of its blue is irrevocable. Geographical anachronisms such as “East” and “West” pale into clown-like rhetorical insignificance.

As a half Turkish half Pakistani citizen Im proud of both my ancestries: I do feel that Turkey is the cradle of civilization: a kaleidoscopic bridge between East and West: Istanbul bears testimony to this: with a collage of mosques doting the city side-by-side with a buzzing nightlife, visitors witness an electrically copious embodiment of delicious multi-cultural fusion.

Such diversity is multi-faceted, ranging from the momentous literature of Orhan Pamuk to the luminous fusion cuisine at some of Turkey`s top eateries. Fashion designers too have harnessed silhouettes bearing craftsmanship from both the Orient and the Occident.

Allama Iqbal and Jellalludin Rumi strove hard in exhorting a bedrock of multi-religious multi-cultural synnergy, surely “Chowki” columnists can come up with viable stratagems of how to further a multi-cultural dialogue ? Afterall wasn`t this the raison d`etre of the Chowki electronic forum to begin with ?

The invitation to multi-culturalism is a timeless one.

But time is a revocable privilege !