Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Not Just Pakistan's Problem
By Bashir Goth
The Question: After Benazir Bhutto's assassination on Thursday, what's next for Pakistan?Benazir Bhutto was Pakistan’s strongest voice against terrorism and military dictatorship in Pakistan. After her assassination, the country’s fate has been thrown into the unknown.

A look at Benazir’s latest statements gave us a glimpse of just how much of a threat she was to the extremists. She didn’t mince words in stating loudly and clearly her intention of cleansing Pakistan of Islamic extremists and terrorists.

Ann Curry of The Today Show wondered aloud why Bhutto was risking her life by returning to Pakistan. She told the former Prime Minister, “You're a mother of three. You could be living in London fine. You don't have to do this.”

Benazir replied, “Look into the eyes of the people who came to receive me at the airport, the joy, the happiness, the singing, the dancing, before the terrorists struck. They were celebrating my return because they want hope. If I don't come back, the 160 million people of Pakistan won't have hope of a future free from terrorism, a future in which there will be democracy.”


She didn’t hide behind euphemism in her objection to Pakistan falling into the hands of Islamists:

“The militants want an Islamist takeover of Pakistan,” she said in the same interview. “They have to be stopped. I have a choice to keep silent and to allow the extremists to do what they're doing, or have a choice to stand up and say, ‘This is wrong. And I'm going to try to save my country.’ And I have taken the second choice.”

READ MORE in Washington Post
Occu-beration
By Bashir Goth
The Current Discussion: Australians are voting online for a "Word of the Year" from a list of new words to be included in the dictionary: among the frontrunners, "Chindia", "globesity," and "password fatigue." Create your favorite new word of the year that tells us something about trends in your country.

Somalilandracy: A self-declared independent country that establishes peace and security within its borders without much international help; abides by all rules of democracy and international law but not recognized by the international community. The name is derived from the case of , known by academics as Africa’s best kept secret.


Occuberation: when foreign forces occupy a country under the pretext of liberating it from the ruling regime with the consent or silence of the international community while the natives of the country see themselves as an occupied nation. Examples are Iraq and Somalia.


Hillaries (Hillary’s tears): when a politician, or anyone else for that matte,r breaks into tears to attract sympathy from voters or audience.

Noneoliday: when a country, usually a developing one, declares a holiday for security reasons due to the arrival of important foreign leaders. This happened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the OPEC Summit in November and it again happened in Dubai during the visit of President Bush on January 14, 2008.

Kenyan way: when a sitting president rigs and officiates his victory in a hastily arranged ceremony to deny the other party any room to maneuver.


Nullmuslim (nullmuslims) Regular Muslims who have been disfranchised by the Islamist extremists who commit heinous crimes in the name of their religion, crimes that Nullmuslims are unable to do anything about. Nullmuslims have been declared null and void by the extremists who have hijacked their religion and made them voiceless.

Climatedoomer (climatedoomers): Those who see global warming as a human-caused doomsday that will bring life on earth to an end.

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Dear Candidates: Lead, Don't Loot
By Bashir Goth
The Question: The U.S. starts to choose a president this week. If you could send the candidates one message, what would it be?

My message would be simple and clear: Use the great American values of liberty, equality, and human dignity for all that are enshrined in the American Constitution. This is what attracts the world to America. It is the illusion of realizing this dream that appeals to people all over the world and makes America the land of opportunity. America defeated the Communist world not by force but by propagating these ideals through its powerful media, through its corporate culture and its liberal trade.

In Africa, it was the Peace Corps teachers that left the greatest impression on the minds of the generation that grow up in the 1960s and 70s. They not only taught the youth, but they intermingled with them, they learned their culture, some of them even married local people and a number of them became scholars in the cultural areas in which they worked.

America is at its best when it crosses oceans through its corporate power and not through its military hardware; when it sends its fast food chains, its Starbucks, its Hollywood movies and its freedom culture, and not when it sends its cruise missiles, its bombers and its marine fleets. I would like to tell the coming president, take heed of history; all known powers of the world, from the ancient civilizations to 20th century dictatorships, have started to crumple when they relied on military muscle. Force is the choice of the desperate.

Let the civilized, cultured and sophisticated and humane face of America obliterate the brutal, savage and inhumane images that the world has seen in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. There is no doubt that the whole world will follow America if America chooses to be a leader and not a looter.

READ MORE in Washington Post
Dear Candidates: Lead, Don't Loot
By Bashir Goth
The Question: The U.S. starts to choose a president this week. If you could send the candidates one message, what would it be?


My message would be simple and clear: Use the great American values of liberty, equality, and human dignity for all that are enshrined in the American Constitution. This is what attracts the world to America. It is the illusion of realizing this dream that appeals to people all over the world and makes America the land of opportunity. America defeated the Communist world not by force but by propagating these ideals through its powerful media, through its corporate culture and its liberal trade.

In Africa, it was the Peace Corps teachers that left the greatest impression on the minds of the generation that grow up in the 1960s and 70s. They not only taught the youth, but they intermingled with them, they learned their culture, some of them even married local people and a number of them became scholars in the cultural areas in which they worked.

America is at its best when it crosses oceans through its corporate power and not through its military hardware; when it sends its fast food chains, its Starbucks, its Hollywood movies and its freedom culture, and not when it sends its cruise missiles, its bombers and its marine fleets. I would like to tell the coming president, take heed of history; all known powers of the world, from the ancient civilizations to 20th century dictatorships, have started to crumple when they relied on military muscle. Force is the choice of the desperate.

Let the civilized, cultured and sophisticated and humane face of America obliterate the brutal, savage and inhumane images that the world has seen in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. There is no doubt that the whole world will follow America if America chooses to be a leader and not a looter.

READ MORE Washington Post