Pakistan Still Needs Your Help

While we are about to finish the holy month of Ramazan and are in the process of shopping for the festival of Eid, we should think about our fellow brothers in the earthquake devastated region of Kashmir, who dont have a roof over their head, who dont have food and water to survive, who dont have clothes to keep them warm in the fast aproaching winter of the region. A lot of us have in some way or the other contributed to the cause but a lot more needs to be done. Hundreds are dying daily because of lack of supplies and medical care, because of no place to sleep. In thier hour of need we should all pray for them and help in whatever way we can. May God help us all in our hours of need. Amen.

how much is your blog worth

you check hypothetically the worth of your blog by visiting the following page - pretty cool. mine is worth a bag of peanuts.

http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/

Lex has great lines

Lex: It's a complicated world, Clark. Only the naïve view it in black and white.

Password

I always forget my passwords , I hope they have an option to retrive passwords.

Peaceful Sleep - Guess Why ?

Being Lazy

I'm not getting much time these days and whatever time I get i'v been spending reading books so here's the list of books I have read recently. Will start posting in detail again after ramadan.

The Psalms of Islam - Imam Ali Ibn Al-Husain
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Islam and Modernity - Rahman
Several Star Trek Volumes
Numerous Archie comics

Busy

Life has been more busy then usual these past few days, especially on account of work and the nature of my work in the month of ramazan. I haven't actually written a lot of things I have been thinking about because frankly I haven't had the time. Its not only that I have been busy as hell it has also been that my hours are messed up I sleep days and work nights. Well only 10 more days left then back to normal. Lets see what "normal" brings my way. One always has expectations the way I'm expecting that the end of ramzan will bring the normal schedule back, we always want what we don't have and whenever we get that we want something else, our needs and wants are never ending there was a saying I once read "blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed". Well the question of the day is, Is there a man who has no expectations? If there is he must truly be blessed.

Sudden Bust in Traffic

I just noticed something today, I don't know how it really works but it has got to do with how blogger indexes the sites. My blog has been new so i'v been trying to keep a track of the traffic I get to it. Today was the first day I noticed that traffic jumped soon after I updated my blog. I guess I'll keep a track of traffic after every updating and try to see how it works. I guess the people visiting after the update are mostly casual browsers but maybe if they like the blog they will become regular visitors.

Busy Busy Busy

Yo! I'm in one of those phases where my mind is a complete blank. I have no thoughts, no feeling, no nothings. Life has been busy as hell although I don't know why they say "busy as hell" i dont think there will be much to do in hell other then face your punishments well it could get rather busy with the kinds of things we have been up to these days, God help us all and show us the right path.

I just wish i can escape for a while even a week with out the cell phone, with no contact with anyone, no worries of work and not thinking of anythings just me relaxing somewhere no one can reach me, I'v been planning a vacation for quite some time now but its been impossible everytime something or the other happens and I cant leave. Hopefully I should be able to take a break from this soon. look at the time, I just got home from work, doing your own business is a hell of a lot tougher then a job I think........... Man I need a break and it better be soon otherwise BOOM, I WILL crack up.

SATRIBUNE says Good Bye

After 3 years of stirring quite an outrage in the Pakistani Government and pro pakistani sectors Mr. Shaheen Sehbai the self exiled journalist who has been publishing "the south Asia Tribune" a renegade newspaper exposing and creating anti pakistani establishment stories has decided to call it quits. In a story published today the 17th of October titled "final words from the south asia tribune" he states that he feels he has achived his goals and he wants to quit while at the top. He hopes that someone else will carry on his mission. He also states that hes not shutting down the newspaper due to pressure or some kind of a deal with the government, but just retiring. That leaves a lot of questions in the readers minds. He also intends to completely dissapear from the scene and remove all published stories although if you want to save something the newspaper will be online till the first.

Although I myself was not a very big fan of Mr. Sehbai due to his habit of sensationalizing most stories and creating an even bleaker picture of the state of affairs of Pakistan then the origional. I wish him the best of luck in his future endevour and sincerely hope that someone wil try to take the place of SATRIBUNE so we can get some exposing stories about our Leaders, i would also hope that the one taking Mr. Sehbai's place is more news oriented rather then sensationalizing like a tabloid.

An Old Interesting Email

The Following e-mail scared the shit out of the people it was addressed to as it was recieved in the last semester of thier college all could have been lost on account of this, but as they say all is well that ends well.


From: C*** M***** <******@*******.EDU>
To: ********@yahoo.com, *******@hotmail.com, *******@hotmail.com
CC: c****.m****@*****.EDU
Subject: test 3
Date: Thu, 02 May 2002 19:56:58 -0500
Gentlemen:
My proctor informs me that the three of you are rather blatantly sharing answers on the exam. My own observations confirm that your eyes stray to others' papers regularly, bringing into question whether or not you are cheating.The exams are strictly individual effort, not group think. ***** University provides severe penalties for such violations. To avoid any questionon the last test of whether or not you are benefitting from the work of your neighbor, I shall require that all persons in class will beseparated from their neighbor by at least one seat. In your case, Iwill require that you sit in separate sections of the room so that none can misconstrue any movement of your eyes or head as attempting to see someone else's paper.Thank you for your accomodation on this sensitive issue.
Professor C**** M*****

Forex Trading

I have been playing around in the fantasy forex trading market using several "platforms". Although im not paying for them as they are trials usually offered for one month they are quite interesting. I have used several platforms, in their trials they work with real figures i.e actual market rates but you play with fake money so it a learning experience, initially i did'nt know the ropes and I was just testing it so I lost a whole lot of money - well nothing to worry about as it was just fake money, then I started reading up on the subject and in fact learned some tips and triks, i subscribed to newsletters and tip sheets they were a lot of help and i finally started making some money - again nothing to be too happy about as it was fake money. I'm thinking of opening a real account with $ 500 or something. I like dealbook by GFT (global forex trading) so i think i'll open an account with them. What I'm not sure about is when i go to pakistan will the software work there on the slow internet speeds as its real time updated every 2 secs. If its not fast enough you can loose a whole lot of money in the forex market. Any one in pakistan doing live forex trading let me know how it worls there.

Scary vs Funny

An image i recently recieved by email from an american friend. Its quite funny the kinds of images making rounds of the internet these days i wonder if terrorists use camels, although i doubt it. These sorts of images are stereotypes damaging the reputation of peace loving arabs. I'd personally take it as a joke but i cant say for some people i know.

Help Pakistan

Domains yahoo

Today i wanted to reserve a couple of domains for future needs, I'm new to this so didnt know where to go and what to look for I'v heard domains yahoo is a good site to book domains, but i browsed and found that yahoo domains are sort of sub domains in the yahoo directory, not sure how that works. Yahoo has been good in other things but domains i dont really know if its their market. I didnt know what i should look for when reserving a domain, its so confusing on some sites, hosting emails all these requirements are a hassle, well i figured it would be easy on yahoo but dont think its easy on domains yahoo as well, so for the time being just reserved a domain through godaddy.com will see what i need to add to that maybe will try domains yahoo in the future as well. I'm messed up this weekend so am blogging gibrish excuse the ramblings.

Broadband Phone

Being a Pakistani who's been living overseas for a long time I have often wondered why our country has been so behind in the broadband phone department. Pakistan's phone services are quite expensive compared to other regions and one would think that Broadband phone would be used a lot in this country. But due to many reasons some being a weak infrastructure and limitations placed by PTCL pakistan's telecomunications company broadband phone hasnt picked up much hipe in the country. Using broadband phones from other countries to dial pakistan is also no good as the rates to call pakistan are some of the most expensive. For example if i call America using a broadband phone it costs me 2 cents while using the same broadband phone to call pakistan costs me 24 cents a min why is that i wonder. lets hope pakistan improves its infrastructure and ceases to put limitations on the use of VoIP and broadband phones so we can communicate with others who are around the world taking advantage of this cheap technology of broadband phone.

Rebuilding the country

Pakistan has suffered a lot due to the earthquake and although the task of rebuilding has started it is rather slow due to many reasons, some of which are financial constraints, technical constraints etc. We as a Nation have to stand up together and do what we can to support our fellow brethern. The worst hit areas of the country are the poor regions of Kashmir which already suffer a lot due to the indian pakistani conflict. the people of the region are poor and helpless in the face of this new dilema. The have lost their loved ones, their houses, and all their belongings some of them have lost everything. In times like these some of us can pray, some of us can donate to the cause financially and some can physically get nvoled in the relief efforts. I'v seen that in the face of crisis we get great idea to help but sometimes we just can't implement the ideas. Everyone wants to help in someway. It has been nice to see the blogging community getting together and trying to help in whatever way they can. Inshallah we will come out of this crisis the best way we can, May God help Us all.

Earthquake Causes Devastation

Today was a sad day for a lot of people in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. There was a terrible earth quake that rocked major parts of Pakistan and India and caused damages in Afghanistan as well. Tragedies like these do not effect us personally unless they hit close to home, in my case today although I did not get effected directly but felt sad as I saw the horrifying images of destruction on television, I myself am not in pakistan so I didnt feel the physical tremors but the images that I saw caused tremors of their own. On top of that two of my employees are from the most severely effected areas Rawlakot and Bagh in Azad Kashmir, the one from Rawlakot is on vacation so I have no news of him I hope and pray that all is well, tried to call but the lines are off, went to see his brother but he left for Pakistan as he could not get in touch with anyone and couldn't sit idly around waiting for news. The other poor chap who is quite old has his family in Bagh, he has heard no news of them since morning and was pretty shaken all day. I have been trying to get in touch with people in his area so that he knows whats going on but to no avail. Hopefully as they say no news is good news, and inshallah all will be well. We feel the pain when it hits close to home, I felt the pain today as i saw people close to me scared and shaken not knowing what to do. I felt their pain as I associated with them, if i did not have attachments with any affectees i might not have been effected the way i am now. I hope and pray that all is well and I hope that God gives sabr to the people who have lost loved ones.

NYC subway on terror alert

CNN.com reports "NYC subway on terror alert for specific threat". How long does the world have to live in fear, how long will this absolute nonsence create fear in the hearts of peaceful "world citizens". Open any newspaper and what do you find every day, headlines that petrify our very souls. Some suicide bomber has blown himself up for whatever reason and taken some innocent people with him on his final journy, Some disgruntled office worker has shot his co-workers in a firing spree, Some bullied schoolboy has taken things into his own hands and fired upon his teachers and fellow students. Did these things happen twenty thirty years back, I'm not sure but i dont think so.

Politics

My ramblings and musings have mostly been political and thus mu posts have followed the same pattern. In this day and age so much is hapeneing around the world and we are exposed to so much politics that that's what we think about a lot. Plus my work place is a hotbed of political discussions, reading back at what i have written in the past few days I think that i should at times leave the main theme which is political and write about other things, in the next blogs i will try to write about my work, some history the good old days and some other things i feel about, like third world debt, poverty, education and human rights, ah ah ah politics again, why? you might ask because all these issues are somehow related to politics. Well I'll try to steer clear of some of the things I'v been writting about. On a final note, Whats up with Mr. Shaheen Sehbai and his www.satribune.com , whats all this anti establishment talk, man there is nothing in this paper other then anti establishment/Pakistan Government articles, Mr. Sehbai most of your articles are total fiction you should leave journalism and take up writting fiction. Here we go I have given you prime advertisment space for free in my blog thats the good part about controversy, get a lot of free advertisment for your crap.

Hotspots and issues

Don't have much time right now but lets see with so much going on all around the world, a spotlight on so many countries and personalities one needs think a lot before writting, what should one write about, Iraq, the recent attacks in Bali, Lebonan's strugges to break free of Syria, or the mdrassas of Pakistan. So much stuff, so little time. It seems that the whole world is a game of chess being played by the major players of the world. One day we see a skillful game between General Pervaiz Musharraf and President Bush, the next day brings another match of with between the Mullahs of Iran and the Indian Government. In each game we notice that there is lots of planning, smart moves (sometimes dumb moves), deception and so on forth. Each game is won or lost, seldom do we see a draw. One team wins and the other looses, but the main looser is not the player, the main looser in each of these games is the common man who is the pawn in all these games.

Ramadan Starting

Happy Ramadan to all my readers, now that ramadan is starting in the United Arab Emirates and work is usually at night i will be sleeping my days off and staying wake at night which is usually what i do. So its actually good for me as i will get some sleep this month. I will also get some more time to blog as i will be taking a work break from about 11:00 PM till 3:30 AM.

US foreign policy towards Pakistan

Lets see, since I'v been talking about Pakistan I decided i should write about some of my feelings of the United States foreign policy towards pakistan. I feel that America has always used other countries to meet their needs. This is very good policy for the Americans, wether its good foreign policy or not I'm not really sure. But with respect to Pakistan our country has been used as a pawn in the greater american game, and there is no one to blame but our leaders. Pakistan has always done what the United States has told us to do. We fought the soviets for them in Afghanistan, we supported the Iraqis against the Iranians (quietly) becaue the americans were not pleased with the islamic revolution in Iran. Throughout the cold war we were Americas partners what happenes after the soviet union breaks up, right, we get abandoned, we get left with jihadis who brew trouble in out midst, we get left with drugs which were the result of the soviet/afghan war. Especially after the tit for tat nuclear tests by pakistan sangtions were imposed on us, who may I ask started Pakistan on nuclear path long ago, Right the United states. In a book titled "The Idea of Pakistan"Stephen Cohen an expert analyst on South Asia says "There was an important American contribution in the form of periodic visits by American nuclear experts to the Staff College in Quetta," "a 1957 visit by a U.S. nuclear-warfare team that 'proved most useful and resulted in modification and revision of the old syllabus' to bring it into line with the 'fresh data' given by the team." "present-day Pakistani nuclear planning and doctrine is descended directly from this early exposure to Western nuclear strategizing; it very much resembles American thinking of the mid-1950s with its acceptance of first-use and the tactical use of nuclear weapons against onrushing conventional forces." The fact of the matter is that when we are needed we are america's best friend and when their purpose is fullfilled we are abandoned. So when should we next expect our abandonment.
The United states was shouting and hollering at the millitary dictator Mr. Pervaiz Musharraf when he toppled the elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup. They were not willing to even talk to the Government as it was not a democratically elected and thus did not have a mandate to make policy. I met Senator Tom Harkin (D), honorable representative of the great state of Iowa right after the september 11 attacks and he said something to the tune of -we used to have a great contact with the Sharif Govt and i have visited pakistan on several occasion but since the coup we are sort of cut off with the generals government.- - Well my question to saviors of democracy is why the hell did you change the policy, why do you endorse the same general and why are you now sitting quitely and praising the General every second day. I guess I should write to Senator Harkin and ask him these questions, maybe he can enlighten me on US foreign policy.

Where I'm going with This

Bafflement, befuddlement, bewilderment, distraction, muddle, mystification, perplexity, puzzlement, whirl - these are the words found in the Merriam-Webster thesaurus under the defination of confused..... this is my state as I am begininning my journey into blogging. Since I'm new to this I'm not sure how to go about it in the right way. But I plan to mainly direct my blog to issues relating to Pakistan, because I'm a Pakistani living abroad and wonder quite a lot whats happening to the country and where it all is leading to. I hope to write about Pakistan, issues relating to Pakistan, and A little about life of Pakistani's living abroad. Since the blog is tittled Abysmal Ramblings I will at times just cry my heart out about other things/issues but the emphasis will be on Pakistan. I also hope to write about world issues and policies that effect my country. I hope I continue writting and I hope its worth reading.

Pakistan a Historic Perspective

Pakistan from in conception has seen a lot of ups and dows economically, politically and socially.This can be attributed to a lot of things only one of which is the political instability of our system. Who is to be blamed for the pathetic state of affairs of our country ? this is a question with multiple answers, is it the Millitary who take over the reigns of the country whenever it pleases them? is it the politicians who plunder the country at will to fill their coffers in swiss banks? is it the feudals who don't want their people to flourish? Or is it the common man who is not bothered as to what happens to the country. Every one has their own opinions on the situation I'd like to give my two cents although I personally dislike authoritarian rule and prefer democracy I honestly feel that a country like Pakistan and a people like Pakistanis can not live under a democracy, The nation has still not hit puberty and like a child needs a strong and strict nurturer to keep it from going astray. By saying this i am in no way endorsing the millitary regime of my country nor am i saying that the leaders are like a mother but to be a little nice i would say the military rulers at the helm of affairs of our great country are like step mother, they care but a little and they do not have the love needed and the heart to take the nation to its heights.

That's how it all began

Well what can I say, I've been thinking about starting to blog for a long time but being the procrastinator that I am, I've been putting it off . I'm a very busy man and don't even know how long this blog will last but I sure hope that I can use this medium to bring my thoughts out and see how it goes. I wish to use this blog to publish a lot of things about my country Pakistan in particular and several issues relating to it, I also wish to publish random thoughts that come to my mind all the time and haunt my nights and make me take refuge in "Nyqil", codeine, valium and several other drugs. If not for chemistry I'm sure I would be a insomniac not that I'm not but the drugs they help you and you get some sleep, so I can happily say that although I might be addicted to these drugs but I'm not an insomniac and I can tell you one thing for sure, of the two evils I certainly prefer the drugs to insomnia. Now I just had my daily dose of valium and I feel like hitting the bed so hopefully more tomorrow. Adios.