Democracy in Afghanistan

Here is some news about the democracy in Afghanistan. it is working.

well, that must be good news, No?

well not exactly. it is working the same like in many third world countries. there are fraud elections and the ballot boxes are stuffed for the ruling person.

consider the recent election. Hamid Karzai’s supporters had already stuffed the ballot boxes before the elections even started. at some places there were more votes than registered voters. for example:

In Helmand, for instance, Western officials believe that in the district of Garmser about 5,000 people voted. But the ballot boxes arriving in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, contain about 20,000. In Musa Qala the discrepancy was between 9,000 and 18,000. Mr Hadee, the IEC official, now says that turnout in Helmand was 25%. Some Western officials reckon 20% of votes nationally may be fraudulent.

but that is not all. the country is  in bad shape. August tied for the deadliest month.

Whatever happened to the Dream of a democratic Afghanistan.

On Jaswant Singh’s Jinnah

So Jaswant Singh writes a book about Jinnah and he is thrown out of his political party. And not only that, the Indian State has banned the book.

there are many issues involved here. first, given that the constitution of India is a secular one I dont know why they are making a big deal out of the views of a person. and i dont have a problem with the party expelling him. the party is a extreme right party and it would be expected of it. but a country like india, that prides itself as the biggest democracy in the world would let a book be  banned, thus effectively saying that it does not care much about the freedom of speech, speaks volumes about the kind of secularism being preached there. so you can say anything as long as it is not against the official version.

wait, havent we seen that in so many other fascist states? werent the Taliban the same type? why do the standards change from event to event.

seems like India is a democracy; but it is a democracy of Hypocrisy.

the shock doctrine

I have started reading the shock doctrine by Naomi Klein. so far an interesting read. I will write more about it when i have read it in full. The Washington Consensus and The Chicago School have always been one of my favorite subjects to read about.

where’s the leash?

so the Iraqi government has put on new restrictions on the movement of the American troops. and we hope that the Americans would presumably do what the but wait a second. Who are the masters here and who are the servants? who has brought this government into power in the first place? wasnt it because of these American troops?

lets start a conspiracy theory. maybe the Americans have told them to issue this directive so that the world can see how “sovereign” the new Iraq is. plus it will help them to leave the country with grace.” ok the government of Iraq does not want it so we are leaving.”

if that is not the case,  Americans must surely be looking for a leash right now.

do they really care what the Iraqi government says?

a wrist slap for Pope from God

the Pope recently slipped and broke his wrist. given that to most of the people in the world he is the person who i God’s right hand man on Earth, it would look illogical that he should have gone through such an incident. after all, isn’t God supposed to protect him in all those circumstances.

or maybe if we become a little more dogmatic , we can say that he was punished for something with which God was not really happy. if so, we would like to know what were those things? has he been punished for his Nazi past or is it because of something else. if so, can we just say it was a slap on the wrist from God’s side?

in any case we will pray for him: may God have mercy on his wrist

salekhanathropy

The operation is Swat has made many of the civilians flee their homes. they have been left to take refuge in far off areas. some of them are being assisted by the world organisations, some by NGOs. but they are not doing it for any good. they are simply doing it becuause they are making money in the process.

fortunately not all people are here to make money. one of the examples of that is the spirit shown by the people of a village called SalehKhana. Saleh Khana is located in the district of Nowshera.

when people started coming in from Swat to the JaloZai camp, the people of SalehKhana started a fund and sheltered some 22 families. they have a capacity of upto 30 families.

the displaced people are being provided every thing free of cost, be it medicines, or food or clothing. an old market with shops have been allocated as the shelter. each family has been housed in one of the shops.

not only that, separate bathrooms for women have already been built. while bathrooms for men are being built. quite an extraordnary work there.

Now this was cricket

Pakistan has finally won the second edition of the T20 international cricket tournament. Pakistan has won a major tournament after such along time. and the victory can not be any sweeter.

basically no one lost the game. both the sides played well but in the end the better one took the Cup home. and the better one just turned out to be Pakistan.

so Congrats to the Pakistani people and to the Pakistani team.

and as Borat would add at this moment : “GREAT SUCCESS”

oh and lets not forget the man who made it all possible: SHAHID AFRIDI

the Swat operation

The Swat operation continues with full vigor. and the secrity forces are claiming that they have been eliminating the Taliban threat. in the new reports, the Army has cleared the Peochar area of these militants, which was their strongest place.

Why do we need the approval of the United States for everything? why does the US have to be the judge of the what we are doing right or wrong? I still can not understand that.

learning from Sri Lanka

the defeat of the Sri Lankan LTTE tells us one thing; if you are persistent enough, you can defeat anything. the Sri Lankans were able to hold off the secessionists. I think Pakistan has lessons to learn from here. after all Pakistan faces similar threats in the form of Talibans etc.

shoe throwing is the new black

the Iraqi press has made atleast one notable contribution to the world politics; throwing shoes at the leaders. President Bush was the first one, and the tradition has continued. someone tried to throw a shoe at Manmohan Singh. whether the shoe is black or brown, it seems like Shoe throwing is the new black.