The End

Although I believe logically that every nationality and ethnicity is entitled to its own national state and identity therein, I have revised my ideas about what should be regarding the Pashtuns I was born among. I am not ready to identify myself with a chaotic, backward-looking society of tribes that prides itself on its primitive inclinations, and egotistic thuggery and devil-may-care contempt for law and procedure. Though there are many nationalities around in the world, with overall boorish and criminal reputations, chiefly like the Albanians, Sicillians, Chechens and Georgians.....and to an extent even Arabs, but I believe that Pashtuns have outdone them all. That isn't to say that I am "stereotyping" all individuals, but what I refer to is their society as a whole - as it exists on the ground, in its own element - and in doing so, I employ numerous "indicators" too.....and I don't mean its "diaspora" either, in the West, especially their youth - as those people are hardly representative of their society at all and to regard or believe that they are, would be a serious error. Those expats are mostly nice people to know, but have little or no bearing on their parent society...and are far removed from iot, and tend to view it through the same exotic glasses as would most foreigners.....rather here, I am talking about the everyday people, of all hues, on the roads and villages of their own land - and domiciled permanently in it. Superficially speaking, I too fit that description, but thankfully I am an outsider because of my English mother - and even because of the fact that my paternal ancestor himself was a Turkoman, who arrived and settled among Pashtuns only 270 years ago - very recent in ethno-historical terms. I would prefer the term "Pashto speaking Turk" for myself, although not many would understand, or appreciate its relevance.........as I don't want to identify with a people who are themselves largely responsible for most of their troubles and ailments.....my reputation is most valuable, and I don't want to soil it by involving it with lowlifes and boors who have limited and inhibited themselves senselessly, and who make deliberate negative use of their potentials - primitive, corrupt and lawlwss to the very core.

Let me also insert an elaboration here about those claiming to represent Pashtuns politically, most of all in cyber space. Rarely has there been such a readily available and misused means as the Internet, and rarely have I heard lies proclaimed so loudly, so effortlessly and with such abandon, and the pointing of fingers at others with a blatant and vulgar shrillness - regarding problems, the genesis of which lies within the Pashtun character itself - as is done by the Pashtun "cyber-nationalists".....I have more worthwhile things to do, than to be involved with a brigade of base, and shrill liars, whose politics blatantly tries to whitewash the image of their twisted people and society - by attributing to them a non-existent humanity and decency, meant for the consumption of an audience of international idiots in this era of information chaos. Pashtuns often will not even drive on the proper side of the road, and think nothing of doing so, let alone being the tragic angels that they are made out to be - always badly bedevilled victims, the butt of one detestable foreign oppressor or another, but never themselves......I am sick of it all.

OSAMA IS DEAD - BUT OBAMA STILL LIVES

The going of Osama Bin Laden is good news for me. Cheers, world! But I am happy only with certain key qualifications and reservations. The bad thing about it is, that the proper people didn't "get" him - we, those who desire the progress of Pashtun society - didn't get him and hang him the way he should have been: he was actually our "prey", given the damage he did in Afghan and Pashtun society; but those who created him got him instead.......those who are equally as answerable and culpable as he himself, if not more.

There is a lot of the usual and typical conspiracy theory nonsense doing the rounds in public, that he was killed long ago, but the drama of his death is being staged only now, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah blah....whether now or 10 years ago, it makes little or no difference. But what is as clear and bright as the midday sun is the dubious role and criminal complicity of Pakistan in harbouring this man. And that has now been finally revealed and put to rest without doubt: the fact that he was killed in a large, posh house, in a major garrison town that houses Pakistan's Military Academy (the PMA), and that this prominently secured and located house was just a few hundred meters from that academy's gates - and that he had been living in that clearly suspicious house since August 2010 - all this speaks for itself. Can the fabulous ISI not even detect the presence of an insect that gets inside its trouser leg, and crawls right upto its Punjabi backside? Of course it can. I needn't waste time and energy on further elaboration in this regard. The US-NATO nexus had been saying this all along, and as is their arrogant habit, the USA walked into "sovereign" territory, while the Pakistani cur stood by and wagged its tail, eagerly looking upto and lovingly watching its redneck masters do the needful.

I regard this event as being the next stage in the "new" world geopolitical scenario after 9/11. But whatever the aftermath will be - and its effects will be numerous - one can say with equanimity that the most immediate and severest effects will be felt by the neocolonial system of Pakistan, and the classes that run it. This is already in an almost terminal state, and the relations of the Pakistani client with its US master are at an all time low, mainly because of the tricks the Pakistanis played n this sordid Islamic fundamentalist......Pakistan has been looted clean and is therefore facing a severe energy, infrastructural and economic crisis, as well as one of governability, and the very night Bin Laden was killed, President Zardari was to announce a "national unity" government, that included some of his main enemies. This reconciliatory gesture was obviously aimed at trying to delay the sinking of the ship they are all on - and Zardari may have also aimed at pleasing his US masters by finally turning over to them the man they sought - so as to get another dollop of aid from them and save the souls of him and his gang......The Taliban have meanwhile announced that it will soon be party time for Pakistan. Whatever the situation, but Pakistan will be in dire straits now - both regarding its US masters as well as its old Taliban proteges; and that is just what such corrupt scum deserve. Providence is now giving it to them.......who says it doesn't exist?

But it must not be forgotten that Osama Bin Laden was the primary Anglo-American tool once upon a time. The Afro in the White House, while announcing OBL's death, said justice has been done.... "for the 3000 Americans killed in 9/11". But pray, who will do justice for the million Iraqis the US killed since 2003, or the hundreds of thousands of Afghans killed since 2001? Thank you, America - but we don't need YOU to do justice: you create the criminal first, and then, when like an ungrateful dog he bites your hand, or no longer serves your vile purposes, you kill him - and "do justice". That is not justice, but a damned naked farce. WE say that real justice will ONLY be done, once that great octopus that is the New British Empire of the USA - that Trailer Trash Imperium, lies flailing in its death throes; for the fight against Anglo-American and NATO imperialism is not only an Arab or Al-Qaeda one, or an Islamic one; or a communist one for that matter....... and it has only just begun......

Damage control, certainly....and a policy shift, too?? Perhaps...

Pakistan's neo-colonial client ruling apparatus carried out a massive damage control exercise over the latest US Drone attack, on Datta Khel in North Waziristan Agency, that killed 45 tribal maliks. This was clearly damage control, as just one day prior to this attack, the Pakistani regime and its key army intelligence agency had engineered the deal in which imprisoned CIA operative Raymond Davis, who was being held in connection with the murder of two Pakistanis - was released in exchange for a huge amount of Islamic "blood money" totalling $2.3 million, paid to the relatives of the murdered victims and others involved in brokering this deal....The two men Davis had shot in panic, were apparently Pakistani secret agents who had been "tailing" him for quite some time. They too were armed, and he mistook them for robbers, it is said.

But the coming of the Datta Khel drone attack so fast on the heels of this most unpopular release was considered as adding fuel to an already raging fire; may be the Americans also did it in the kind of infantile fits of flamboyant arrogance for which they are so infamous - which is why their neo-colonial proteges, who have governed Pakistan since its creation 64 years ago - were not only take aback, but they had to think of defending themselves against mounting public reaction too. In any way, it seems that the inevitable systemic and social pressures - generated in the US-Pakistan patron-client relationship since its first malfunction in 2001 (9/11) - and which both have been desperately trying to contain since then, are making their way out, and are ripping this unholy and dirty nexus apart too. A US attorney (in Virginia) rightly said in 1997 - in remarks made during the Aimal Kansi shooting trial - that the Pakistani ruling classes are people who will gladly sell their mothers for $200 (as they did then, when they turned in US fugitive Pakistani Aimal Kansi to the US) - but if they now try to prevent their nexus with their US masters from tearing, their efforts will be in vain. This simply isn't that time anymore.

Now, Pakistan's Pashtun tribals have threatened to fight the US and avenge their blood spilt in such drone attacks......but this is actually a reiteration of continuing a fight that has already been going on for the last ten years - the fight of the Taliban (who are Pashtun tribals) against the US in Afghanistan and Pakistan's FATA and KP Province areas - so that announcement is not really any news at all, but just a fresh reiteration of resolve!

If the Americans were not such hypocrites and supporters of corruption and the corrupt globally, I would commend their FATA Tribal drone strikes. They sure know how to take the crap out of those who need it! But in the shameless role that they are now playing on the world stage, the Americans have reduced themselves to something lower than even Pathan (Pashtun) tribesmen......Americans themselves promote the ills they fight. They got their man Davis released through the use of the same Sharia law that they are striving to fight elsewhere (that is the basis for the excuse of their whole fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda). It is such base attributes as these, that will soon effectively seal the fate of this otherwise great nation and world power, and deservedly so. They think that because they are "on top", they have the right to do anything they wish. Such assumptions of theirs, might have to do with the lowly social origins of the majority of those otherwise hard-working and ingenious European people who settled America and created it. Or rather, it is more likely that their free-wheeling individualist "democratic" system and outlook that are responsible for it; the people of the Soviet Union were from the same lowly proletarian origins, but they had a tightly controlled system, that permitted no nonsense....but it went to the other extreme, and in the end - no extremes are good.......

THE DECLINE OF PAKISTAN'S NEOCOLONIAL STATE

The "Jinnah crowd" is my term for that strange motley that claim equal, if contradictory allegiance to modern Western habits and fundamentalist Islam......their description lies outside the scope of what I am writing, but in the present age, their assertions regarding the original purpose behind Pakistan's creation have grown......in the form of a vague, piteous whimper, that Pakistan was not meant for Islamic fundamentalism.......Whatever such types may say, but the fact is that the sole justification for creating Pakistan was in the name of Islam only....though it took a full 30 years after 1947 for that virulent essence to surface, emerging and expressing itself fully in this state and society - and when it did, it was so destructive, that its first casualty was the eradication of the state support structures that had nurtured and enabled it in the first place.....

Let us begin. After the first decade of Pakistan's existence, a basic characteristic of its state's nature surfaced, and came to the fore - the need by the Pakistani State, of the Army for its continued existence - in 1958. Then, within the first 25 years of Pakistan's existence, another "correction" manifested itself: the separation of the non-feudal Bengali East Pakistan wing (now Bangladesh) from the basically feudal neocolonial Pakistani State - in a baptism of fire and blood in 1971.....

Any dispassionate, accurate and profound analysis will tell one - that the decay of the Pakistani neocolonial state set in with the start of its Islamisation- Jihadi phase, both of which began in around 1978 with the advent of Ziaul Haq's rule, and the Marxist coup in Afghanistan - which outlasted Zia's death in 1988 until the spring of 1992, when both the Soviet Bloc and the Marxist Afghan regime collapsed. These were processes that were orchestrated by a coterie of drunken Pakistani generals - and they were processes that effectively did away with whatever European character Pakistan's British Indian neocolonial state had, reverting it to a new, faux form of its pre-British Central Asian Islamic roots....giving rise to a feverish "neofeudal" culture dominated by elitist jungle rule that stemmed from the arrival in this state-social milieu of the easily available big money and resources and the ruthless attitudes needed for the Jihad......

This runaway process accelerated with the arrival of the Benazir Bhutto Regime II government in 1993; so lethal was it, that its own President had to remove it at the end of 1996.....corruption now became a "national issue" for the first time in Pakistani politics.....but in February 1997, with the arrival of the "replacement" the Nawaz Sharif II Regime, the onset of the decay of Pakistan's neocolonial state effectively came out into the open: the flour scarcity/degradation crisis of 1997, followed in early 1998 by the first signs of Pakistani Talibanisation in Angoor Adda (South Waziristan), the smashing of TV sets in Mir Ali Bazar (North Waziristan) and the domination of various areas of Orakzai Tribal Agency by Pakistani Taliban - all signs of which pointed in the general direction of where Pakistan, its state, its US sponsored gangster neofeudal ruling elites and its degraded and ramshackle society were all headed........this applied to those with the eyes to see, and the ears to hear, however.

It was this state of affairs of breakdown that actually prompted general Musharraf to overthrow Nawaz Sharif's Regime II in October 1999 - whatever "spin doctors" and twisted politicians lying through their rotten teeth may otherwise say. And although he managed to delay the onset of this decay somewhat, he ended up in refuelling it and unleashing it with a renewed ferocity, as was evident at the end of his rule in 2007. Zardari, or Bhutto Regime III, which succeeded Musharraf in 2008 - has absolutely no pretensions about "seeing through" or completing this process of decay, because nothing else is now left for anyone to do here - even the once mighty army, the final arbitrator of all things and problems Pakistani, is now helpless in the face of this malaise - of its own major creation, which has now metastatised into a full-blown Taliban insurgency and social, economic and structural breakdown in the terminal stages.

Had Musharraf tried seriously in 2000, he might have accomplished something - had he destroyed and put both the Nawaz and Bhutto "democratic" cliques to the death that each deserved, but it is still very doubtful to assert that - as he lacked the wherewithal for such a venture, and his Western patrons would have had none of such " dictatorial nonsense".....his army too, would have to be purged of its "jihadi fervour", an impossible task.....

Such a task would be daunting by any standards: there exists a thoroughly criminalised elite, bureacracies civil and military, and polity - not to mention an oversized, inferior and similarly criminalised population of teeming millions, for most of whom only the maximum punishment would suffice.....so this is not a "conventional" job in any way at all; certainly not for "democrats"....it is a job served only by an Antichrist....the problem here is SPIRITUAL in nature, not economic or political, the way the materialist paradigms of the European Renascence have so far been dictating for 500 years.

The past 20 years of American-led Western supremacy in the world have also proven unprecedentedly harmful: an untold number of Pakistanis, who abused and misused power at home, and stole funds and resources, have found safety and refuge in all Western European countries - particularly in emigrating, besides Britain, to the English-speaking, artificially settled lands that I call the WASTE (White Anglo Saxon Trash Establishments) countries of the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand). That has to be kept in mind for future retributive reference, as it is a grave injustice that can never be dismissed out of hand. Even those of them who haven't stolen anything, but have just fled to or settled in better climes, are criminally culpable of dereliction and desertion of duty and responsibility, and before my eyes, stand in the same ranks as their robber and thief counterparts.....

Only Stalinist measures could have worked, yet this was both the wrong place, as well as the wrong time in history for that......this was a problem, that was due to show its own results only now, for its own unique purpose in global destiny - which will soon be manifested in about two years' time.......some Antichrist will appear, some solution will have to be found, no matter how gargantuan - that is the only surety present here. And in two years, we will know about that also, however improbable it seems.....

THIS IS WHAT I FEEL LIKE.....

Pashtuns this, Pashtuns that, Pashtuns the other......

It makes one sick; but not the repetition as much as the hypocrisy and spin that is involved.....Let us take but one example: Pakistan's shameless Punjabi propaganda machine, in order to outdo its US puppet rival Karzai's regime - has taken up the cause of Pashtuns and their representation in Afghanistan......we hear complaints, moans and minges going on, that Pashtuns have been deliberately sidelined, neglected, discriminated against in Afghanistan....yes, true - and I think it is justified too. Not only has the non-Pashtun population increased in number collectively, but they are qualitatively better people too. Pashtuns should prove that they are progressive, educated, disciplined, law abiding and loyal, and they will automatically get their place in society. Now, whatever it is they are getting, is what they really deserve. Yet our people lack the capacity of self-criticism, even if it for the sake of their own continued survival and betterment.

What image does a Pashtun conjure up now, on both sides of the Durand Line? An uncouth, Neanderthal type, and bad mannered boor, who keeps on spitting, and who doesn't give a shit for anyone, including his own Pashtun brother or cousin (does anyone know "Tarboorwali"?) - wearing a turban,.....a religious fanatic who treats women as half-human chattel, and does what he can to prevent their education and their right to vote......and kills them on the slightest suspicion, even those who are not his wives, but sisters or daughters too (yes, wives, not wife....); a rough, corrupt man, who only obeys his crude tribal custom, and tribal Islam - and bribes his way through life, through courts, and smuggles for a living, and thinks nothing of doing so - and is fit only for other lowly menial jobs like a guard or a trucker, a rubbish boy, a tea boy or a polish boy......a foul-mouthed, rowdy, jealous, treacherous backstabber and egotist thug, who shoots others dead on the slightest pretext, and who drives on the wrong side of the road, thinks nothing of taking illegal shortcuts, and parks his car in the middle of the road, not even giving a piss for the others behind him........and whose liking for young boys can never be quenched.

Such people, nay races, have to be sidelined , if not done away with for good - as they represent a force for corruption and social degradation in the world, to others.......as we have seen even in the tinpot society of Pakistan, since 1979....and sadly, they are not even a percentage, or even majority of their society; they represent its totality! Good Pashtun people may be .01% and that is no exaggeration....

This is the age of American liberalism, in which all kinds of nonsense has a "right" to exist and to be heard, and can be tolerated......but, thankfully it won't be, once America (soon) bites the dust....then I would like to see whether Pashtuns are just sidelined, or whether more effective treatment awaits this society of rascals, these thugs, these vipers......

People say that the PDPA was the best Party to rule Afghanistan? Perhaps, by Afghan standards.....but hardly, I would say. Even so the Parchamis were much more better. Remember the Pashtun and rural Khalqis? It was the cunning and power hungry Pashtun Amin who treacherously did away with his "great teacher" and "elder", the Pashtun Taraki.....food for thought.

March 2011 - Critical times ahead for Pakistan

This is in continuation of the picture I built up earlier in this blog, regarding the fate of Pakistan and its general situation in the coming weeks and months. 2011 is sure to be a decisive year, and last night Geo TV's Kamran Khan reported in his programme that the end of February and March 2011 could be extremely critical for the PPP government now in power, and consequently the diseased country in itself. The government is in a quandary, as it is contemplating a 10-15% rise in petroleum product prices in keeping with the recent international rises - which could result in a further 20-25% rise in already high prices; this could cause unrest and upheaval; and if this not done, then the government faces a shortfall of 10-12 billion Rupees in its revenues, in compensation for which it will have to print more currency, leading to inflation....so it is stuck 'twixt the Devil and the deep blue sea.....another, political issue coming to the boil, may be the removal of the ruling PPP from the cabinet of the country's majority province, the Punjab in the next few days. That too could bring on instability.

It must be noted that oil prices have globally risen in response to the Arab crisis, in part because of fears that what is happening in Libya will spill over to other oil-producing countries in the region. Some analysts have predicted $150 a barrel as a possibility; with a crushing knock-out effect for Pakistan........ Inevitably, this will impact global economic recovery after the financial meltdowns of the last decade.

It is no exaggeration to say that we look today at a world undergoing profound change, a change of no less consequence than the breakup of the Soviet Union – and laced with just as many uncertainties. (See my earlier post: Two Decades of an American Global Order; and, The Way the Cookie of the American Global Order will crumble).

***Rich Pakistanis planning to run to UK with their money***

So says a headline in today's "The News International". But mind you, these rich Paki rats won't be able to escape their deserved punishment there in their new British nests, either: the coming global economic catastrophe that many know is just around the corner, and mightier than anything imaginable, will crush them in the UK even......so they will meet the same fate there that they are trying to escape here, only it will be worse, as they will be in a foreign land. It is better to remain and face the odds - bravely, like men, that is if they are men to begin with - in a familiar place, rather than to seek refuge in alien lands.
And if the British think that they will shore up their economy with stolen money - and whistle away while doing it just as they have done in other cases, then they are sorely mistaken. Britain's world power days are long over, and it appears that its secondary power status may soon be over too. So they had better be careful. They have a lot to answer for, as it already is. In the next decade or two, fair Britannia may well find herself trampled under the heels of a new and unfathomed Eurasian force of occupation - under whose administration the British Establishment will be taken to task for all its past international crimes like the one mentioned in the report below that I am now commenting upon. If the United Kingdom of Great Britain has been great and having it good for the past 400 years, that doesn't mean that it will continue forever to be like that. It has just been their good luck, much in the same way as it has been with every empire on Earth. And they might be under the illusion that they are entitled to do as they like because they are invincible, as the Spanish Armada of 1588, Napoleon in 1805 and Hitler in 1940 were unsuccessful in setting foot on the British Isles physically. But I would warn them that things will not always be like that. After all, the Normans, the Vikings, the Saxons and before them the Romans and the Scythians have all had their turns at subduing and transforming Perfidious Albion successfully.....it is just a matter of history, which should be understood correctly and never taken for granted.....
It should also be noted that Britain has always been notorious for serving as a refuge and a haven for all kinds and varieties of international troublemakers, mischief mongers and rascals. Not if it can be helped much longer........
Britain will be doing itself incalculable harm by taking in such scoundrels. It will also be increasing the list of charges against itself, that it will eventually have to face and answer for, when the time finally comes. And I believe that time is not that far down the line.....

(The British - and now their American proteges - have kept this rapacious class of elite bandits in power over this state and society. It must be a worthless society indeed, to allow this to happen. It is unified by "issues" such as the so-called Blasphemy Law and the Raymond Davis incident, but not by the plunder, misrule and dysfunctionality of its elites..... I can see the elite rascals grin cynically at what I have said, yet they should no longer be sure about their continued prosperity).

(Please refer to my earlier post, below in this blog, on the same subject: "Draft of an intended letter by the IRDC to the British FO - on the subject of British abetment of Pakistani corruption.....")


Rich Pakistanis planning to run to UK with their money

LONDON: Affluent Pakistanis are taking keen interest in migrating to Britain under an upcoming scheme designed to attract the rich and mighty from around the world.

The News can disclose that dozens of multi-millionaire Pakistanis have contacted - and even hired in some cases - leading immigration solicitors in London to prepare their cases for immigration on “super-fast track” once the relevant laws were implemented.

A source in the Home Office confirmed that several “high-net-worth Pakistanis” had evinced great interest in shifting to Britain under the new immigration scheme, which would be implemented in April.

The new scheme almost reverses the current stringent rules. It will provide special incentives to rich foreigners to invest in Britain and inject the much-needed cash into the recession-hit economy.

According to the scheme, rich foreigners who could bring in £10 million for investment would be eligible for a fast-tracked permanent residency within two years - unlike five years for all categories under current rules. Those with £5 million would qualify in three years and those with £1 million would get residency in five years.

The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government faced growing criticism over cuts in the services sectors expenditures and job slashing. The number of jobless is about to hit 3 million as many companies are laying off staff on a daily basis. Thus, the flow of money from abroad under the immigration scheme would be a welcome boost to the stalled British economy.

The Conservatives promised at the time of the election in May last year that they would cut immigration from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands. The government is now planning to slash the number of foreign students to reduce net migration but this measure will hit the cash-strapped universities, dependant on international students.

The immigration clauses relating to the wealthy are undergoing a sea change, including the time period for gaining a permanent stay in Britain being drastically slashed. To qualify for a visa, an investor migrant will have to spend six months in the country instead of current requirement of nine months.

The individuals from countries such as India, Pakistan, Russia and those in the Middle East will take the opportunity offered by the new route to settle in Britain. There may not be a lot of Pakistanis eager to invest in the £10 million category but the number of those in £5 million and £1 million brackets could easily reach hundreds, the Home Office source said.

Talking to The News, a London-based solicitor confirmed that he was dealing with files of six rich families from Lahore and Karachi, who intended to migrate to Britain under the new scheme. “They are not happy with the unstable situation in Pakistan and Britain is a paradise for their capital. It’s clear to see why they want to move out,” he said, while speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another solicitor, who deals with a vast number of portfolio investors mainly from the Middle East, also confirmed that he had been approached by well-off Pakistani clients about the new immigration rules.

Fraz Butt of Saracens Solicitors, Marble Arch, London told The News: “Our Pakistani clients are showing substantial interest in migrating to Britain through the investment route as a consequence of the incentives on offer and the fast tracked timetable. Our Pakistani and Middle Eastern clients seek security for their investments and a stable environment for their children, which regrettably is not currently on offer in Pakistan. We are now servicing these clients and in turn assisting the government with its plans to enhance the austerity plans. It is truly a unique opportunity.”

A UK Border Agency spokesperson told The News: “The government has been clear that we want to attract the brightest and the best to help our economic recovery. We believe that entrepreneurs, investors, and people of exceptional talent have the most to offer in terms of driving economic growth. We are looking at ways to encourage investors to come to the UK and to make the application process more user-friendly; we will announce changes in due course.”


http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=32808&Cat=2&dt=2/24/2011

"Curiouser and curiouser......"

Attention is drawn to the parts I have highlighted in bold in this Pakistani newspaper editorial below. (Its URL is also given). It is said in various conspiracy-theory quarters, that the Americans deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen so that they could engineer and justify a conflict in the Middle East and Central Asia , which they are now deliberately prolonging- as an excuse to be physically and militarily near the planet's oil reserves, at the crucial period in history when it was known that these finite supplies would begin dwindling, given the hyper consumption of the Western capitalist societies......an international struggle would be precipitated over these, as he who controls the oil, remains on top and the winner....till recently, I dismissed this 9/11 theory as crazy nonsense. But now, with strange facts coming to the fore in the recent and bizarre Raymond Davis shooting case in Pakistan, I am forced to rethink this. It may be quite feasible. Look at the way the Western world is consuming everything. I mean, good living standards don't come out of thin air.

These are some of the seamy facts of life, that the ordinary and decent Western citizens just can't suspect; nor can they, in their naïve "decency", bring themselves to accept and acknowledge them - although the world is now rapidly losing its innocence in that regard......


Murder and espionage


So now we know – or think we know – just what it might have been that Raymond Davis and his fellow-spooks were up to. And it was nothing to do with diplomacy, at least not in the sense that it is normally understood. We also learn something about the freedom of the media in America because it was the media in the Land of the Free that quietly, and at the US government’s behest, kept knowledge of Davis’ linkage to the CIA from the American public and the rest of the world. However, the media in the rest of the world is under no such constraint and when the ‘The Guardian’ ran a story on Sunday that reported the link the cat was well and truly out of the bag. And what a cat! Far from being some lowly member of the ‘technical and administrative staff’ of the US diplomatic mission in Pakistan, it is now alleged that he was part of a covert CIA-led team that was engaged in the surveillance of militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP). Forensic examination of the equipment found in his possession is said to show that he was in phone contact with 33 Pakistanis, of whom 27 were from the TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Neither organisation is known for peaceful or law abiding activity.(TTP is the Pakistani Taliban).

The reasons for this? We may never know with certitude, but informed speculation suggests that, contrary to the protestations of American officials that their staff would never engage in espionage or covert operations in Pakistan, this was indeed what he was busy with. The Washington Post goes so far as to detail that he was operating out of a ‘safe house’ and at the time of the incident he was conducting “area familiarisation” – basic surveillance – in order to better acquaint himself with the area he was working in. There is also speculation that his contacts with the TTP and LeT were more than mere ‘surveillance’. If this is anywhere close to the truth then we are getting a glimpse of the very dark and very dirty side of American foreign policy as it is played out here. Protestations loudly made about diplomatic immunity suddenly appear fatuous and facile, and those making them duplicitous and utterly deceitful. Bluntly put, we have been lied to. Moreover, we have been lied to by some very senior figures in the American administration who sought to both cover their tracks and extricate their man before cat and bag parted company. Whatever the legal outcome, whether Davis is tried for murder or espionage – with the latter probably unlikely – the coinage of American diplomacy in Pakistan has been debased to the point at which it is virtually worthless. And if the Americans ever again complain about us being wary of issuing their ‘technical and administrative assistants’ with visas, they can, to use the vernacular, go take a running jump.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=32534&Cat=8&dt=2/23/2011

The decadent opulence of the Army......

The Pakistan Army is the instrument of the ethnic Indian Punjabi majority Muslim community that comprises and "colours" Pakistan. It is also the main instrument through which the US-NATO Western combine controls the state entity known as Pakistan (though it is perhaps showing signs of going "rogue" in that respect, and dysfunctional in that role - since quite long)......The recent Raymond Davis incident has all but blown the cover off what was once a 60 year effective CIA-ISI master and slave cooperative relationship, that was otherwise an open secret in this society, but was never "openly" regarded. Now, however things are different in that respect......the whole arrangement is in sorry shreds and tatters.

Below is what a famous Pakistani Punjabi newspaper columnist Masood Hasan has to say about the opulent decadence that characterises this army's generals and their lifestyle:

"A friend who was asked to make a presentation to a gathering of top defenders ended up with a shrink because he believed he had been to heaven and returned to tell the tale. He blubbered on and on about what he saw, and claimed that the opulence and style was the kind that even kings could not have imagined. Six security guards alone inspected his car – not a 7 series BMW, but a humble 1300 cc local job – and himself. Another four starched men then took over and marched them through a series of lavishly appointed anterooms where another three awaited the guests. They were appropriately deposited in a room and sat twiddling their toes while in an adjoining room many more staffers tucked into a lavish spread. It was not someone’s birthday but just a routine middle-of-the-week activity. Finally they were “cleared” and led into a huge room straight out of a designer magazine. On getting used to the subdued and discreet lighting, they found a dozen and more sofas with one strategically placed separate from the rest where rested the big man, deep in comfort.

There were obviously no tables and upright chairs (who needs them?) and presentations were expected to be made from sofas to more sofas. Trophies and trappings of grandeur hung from the walls, and, although not in use, there seemed to be more air-conditioners than sofas. A posse of waiters slid about silently with highly polished silver trays bearing food fit for the gods. Sandwiches of a most delectable kind, hot, off-the-skewer kebabs, succulent samosas and patties with appropriate sauces and Ramsey Gordon styling, seductive pastries, assorted biscuits and confectionaries. Juices, light drinks, teas, coffees and lemon grass hot liquids were on call. While the hosts tucked in most enthusiastically, the visitors, clearly baffled by this mid-morning romp, politely declined to join in the Greek revelries. Their refusal was greeted with dismay. They were informed stiffly that “Elevenses were a part of the army’s traditions, and an honoured tradition, at that.” The presentation, when it finally took place, was a bit of a disaster because the food had played havoc with an attention span not quite the kind you’d find with Steve Jobs.

This was no special lair of VIPs but another mess, and there are dozens of them built in grounds where pilots can land 747 aircraft with eyes closed. These messes don’t look like they are part of Pakistan, and while in this case it happened to be the army, I personally know the same holds true of the air force and the navy. The Brits may have long gone but, by golly, their hallowed traditions are observed ritually across the length and breadth of Pakistan, and all their great virtues forgotten or simply discarded.

In civilian setups, the grandeur is not of the quality and class that is perfected by the armed forces but fairly close in many details. Such presentations are made to either a room full of dozy heads and people in an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s, or they are made to the big man himself who has no more than three seconds to hear all that you might have put together for the past four months. Once, during the days of Shauka Aziz (I have been told by his friends and fan club that he was an honest, industrious and humble man whose wife drove a battered car that could barely move; I stand corrected, and may God forgive me for judging the man so wrongly), a friend’s company was asked to travel to Islamabad and present in 30 minutes a comprehensive global plan that would overnight turn our tarnished image into rainbows. When they protested that such a fantasy was not possible – a suicide bomber had killed dozens that very morning – they were told to get on with it, or get out. They got out. The “image” caper set the country back by many millions and joyrides galore later. All was shoved under a bulging carpet – the dustbins were already overflowing. Life continued....."

The Pakistani state: Change - or be consumed by change!

I have edited and condensed this note from the important parts of a recent series of four lengthy newspaper articles - by well known Pakistani editor Mohammad Mallick - who wrote them as part of an in-depth news analysis over the space of several days, concerning the current situation that Pakistan now faces, and the inevitable change that it will bring..........and what is likely to happen in that event........he addressed it to the powers-that-be of this country.............it is a useful guide to the kind of situation - if not demise - we can expect for this country, soon......

From the Salman Taseer murder and the Raymond Davis issue, it can be seen that the hold of Pakistan's traditional rulers - the neocolonial, Western client regime that created the country 63 years ago, and has ruled it since - is now effectively over; for this dysfunction, its own corruption and debauched practices are responsible....

Below, Mohammad Mallick discusses the nature and prospects of the inevitable change now facing his country's doomed state establishment - and what its best current "players" can do about it to save their own skins....he identifies these two major players as being the Pakistan Army, and the Judiciary. He discusses the nature of the problem, and how these bastions of Pakistan's old order can react to try and save it from spiralling into anarchy.......

ISLAMABAD: The following situationer is based on exhaustive background interviews with all key power players, including the top civil and military leadership.

(1) OVERVIEW - Can PM Gilani simply reshuffle the deck and stand pat? The answer is an emphatic no. A few new faces may pop up like croakers after a summer rain but the trio that really needs changing will surely continue smirking at the nation. Whatever the ultimate complexion, emptying the cesspool of incompetence and corruption from one end and refilling it from the other offers no panacea for the fundamental problems being faced by the people, and the state itself. The time for such cosmetic touches a la transforming make-ups of ambitious starlets is long gone. Not that this ruling dispensation, seeped in perpetual denial, would have noticed. The need of the hour is for the Zardari-Gilani duo to conduct an honest catharsis of their own, which must lead to their own honest reinvention as selfless leaders. And since that appears to be an unlikely possibility, the next question: where are we going then in the coming weeks, or months? People are wondering if change is now inevitable.

But what change, how, and by whom? Can the absence of early general elections, pave the way for reluctant generals? These are but few of the myriad burning questions.

First, the harrowing economic scenario. That we are already on the precipice of financial ruin is an undeniable reality. Forget about tangible progress. We need to maintain a minimum annual average growth rate of 8% over the next twenty years just to maintain our present dismal standards of poverty, joblessness and economic stagnation. And what has been the annual average growth rate since the present government took over almost three years back? A lowly 2-3 percent. Billions of dollars have been taken out of the country by the wary and watchful investors and business houses. And what is coming in as direct foreign investment? Zilch! The bankruptcy of the national exchequer is only rivalled by the paucity of vision of our ruling leadership which is struggling with borrowed ideas and borrowed money. By September 2010, Pakistan’s public debt stood at Rs9.473 trillion.

Just try adding the zeros and you’ll have a fair idea of our collective zero future, lest drastic measures are taken. Will this trend change? Hardly, considering that during the period July-Sept alone our brilliant financial managers had borrowed a staggering Rs579 billion. Is the government betraying any signs of coming up with an ingenious indigenous independent economic plan? None. Any tangible demo of its intent to change its own free spending ostentatious misgoverning traits? None. Any chance of us being pleasantly shocked by government’s hitherto secret talent of conjuring out-of-box solutions to revive economy and dipped investor confidence? Not a chance in a million, or should one say Rs9.74 trillion......

(2) WHAT IS THE THINKING OF THE ARMY? - So what is the army thinking in all this, anyway? Economics. You read it right the first time, economics. Economy is the mantra of the top army brass. The army leadership is literally scared stiff of the economic scenario and even more so considering that the governor state bank, the finance minister, and other official economic mandarins have been painfully honest in their off the record presentations to the top generals. The armed forces are finding it extremely tough to even finance their standard standing-army operations, let alone go for upgrading their capacity in terms of men or material. And we are not even looking at the crushing burden of fighting a full-scale war both within the country and on our western borders while keeping a tight vigil on the Eastern front.

Their biggest fear is that Pakistan would be rendered irrelevant vis-‡-vis India purely by its economic downslide and that ultimately we could even end up in a position of some former Soviet republics, which were forced to pander their nuclear assets to the west in lieu of the badly needed bread money. On the internal front too, lack of development and rehabilitation in the war zones against terrorism is a big worry for the Khakis. They blame seriously flawed priorities of government as well as the monetary crunch self-induced by mis-governance and corruption. On Pakistan-United States relations, Rawalpindi has serious doubts about the civilian leadership’s ability to even comprehend the enormity of the issue with its bilateral, regional, and global implications let alone the political leadership’s acumen to handle it prudently.

The army commanders are keeping a close watch on everything, starting from big ticket items like Afghanistan and economy to relatively way smaller issues. Just to give one example, a very high powered call was recently made to a baffled MD PIA, who was asked to explain the controversial deal involving selling PIA routes to another airline (to share an aside, his argument didn’t go down well with the caller). But the real alarming part is the overall Khaki assessment of the democratic and civilian assets required for pulling the country out of its current morass.

In the current khaki perception, “there is no hope of betterment from the current leadership”, to quote someone who really matters. And this judgment covered virtually all the national stature politicians. Having gone over the latest political developments including the 45-day deadlines, interim agendas and the government feigning to start reforming its ways etc, I asked this direct question from an extremely pertinent general, “Do you think the current situation will improve and the government will actually reinvent itself? Can you name anyone out of Gilani, Zardari, Nawaz, Asfandyar, or anyone else in the parliament who you think offers any grounds for optimism? None, pat came the response. Does that mean you will have to ultimately step in? was my second question. This time the response came after a long pause, “Army interventions have not really worked in the past and the region’s situation is already very complicated. And for a country that is so heavily reliant on foreign funding, it is not so easy to go against internationally accepted norms etc. No we do not want to have any direct role in the running of the government but the security and interests of the State must also be protected. I think the army would support any democratic alternatives that help steer the country out of this economic and political stalemate”.

When asked if this answer tacitly implied that the army favoured the much talked about concept of a clean ‘professional’ national government fully answerable to the apex court, the only response was a knowing smile. By the way, they may not have much to say for his political acumen, but Imran Khan surely has a lot of senior officers admiring his financial integrity and boldness (read: anti-Americanism) on issues like war on terrorism and his “groom-able leadership qualities”. But how could the Supreme Court approve such a dispensation that visibly has no constitutional backing? One wonders!

(3) THE ARMY AND THE JUDICIARY ARE WHAT MATTER NOW, IN THE END - In the black and white world of the khakis, the buck stops at the desk of the Chief of the Army Staff.........There is extreme institutional concern over the alarming economic and political situation but it would be premature and imprudent to suggest that the Khakis are raring to play a power role to the total exclusion of political elements. But having said that there is clear evidence too of growing institutional pressure to “do something” and of “saving Pakistan first and systems later” on the man already feeling the additional weight of an additional three-year term in office. The kind are presenting this as a God given opportunity to do great things for the army and the country, and the unkind as the price for holding his silence and watching impassively, as the country slides deeper into one despair after another...........

Not a single fundamental has changed nor has any serious attempt been made to address the country’s economic and law and order woes. It is clear to keen strategic observers that the government, the PML-N, and other political power players are indulging in shadow boxing as per rules of engagement specifically designed to ensure mutual sustenance and prolonging of their cushioned stay in power.

The time for games is over. The economy is in ruins. National mood is of resignation and despondency. Food prices are shooting up as much as 20% in one month. Poor are no longer just getting poorer but desperate and hungry. The angry youth is like a volcano waiting to erupt at the slightest provocation, which could come any day. Who knows, even the apprehended unconditional release of Raymond Davis could prove a lit fuse. It’s time for politicians to display a sincerity of purpose and cause a change, or be ready to be consumed by the one coming.

Two viewpoints prevail in terms of strategic thinking. One favours the wait and sees policy which essentially means to allow maximum room to politicians to fix things and when every option stands exhausted to only then help sort matters as the proverbial white knights. The overriding fear, however, appears to be that that point has already been reached and in the event of any more inordinate long delay, the lack of credibility of the rulers will have perpetually isolated us in the comity of nations and even worse, the petering economy may suffer an irreversible stall and thus spell immediate disaster for democracy, institution, and the country itself.

Under the present trying circumstances, the power players would ignore to their own peril the personalities of the two gentlemen, who have personally rejuvenated and reshaped their respective institutions.

One institution is led by a man of impeccable credibility who has already shown that he won’t be taking any prisoners in his open war against corruption and abuse of public office. Neither is he afraid of stepping in whenever the corrupt and incompetent executive abdicated its responsibilities. The other has as its commander, an accomplished strategist who has the patience to reach a chosen destination, on a route of his own charting, in the timing of his own choice. Referring to India he once said that his own preparations were based on the capacity of the other and not on professed intentions. Islamabad takes note.

The chief justice of Pakistan and the Chief of the Armed Forces may live in two separate cities, running two separate worlds, but remain inseparably linked by the common thread of national interest. Are circumstances being created by the criminal follies of our political classes where one may be forced by the force of circumstances to interpret, and the other to implement? The answer, and possibly the change, may come a lot sooner than we all think.

The dire situation Pakistan is now in...

I have culled, put together and edited various writings and news analyses and writings below, to form a complete picture of our present predicament, and where it will likely lead to, in the very near future....time has run out for the mess called Pakistan.......

At a high-level meeting last Thursday, the president and the prime minister have reviewed what appears to be a grim economic situation, agreed on tightening austerity measures for the government and bringing the wealthy into a tighter tax net. They would do well to start by setting an example themselves, by making their tax returns public, and asking other party members to do so as well. We all know that the taxes paid by politicians are in most cases low – sometimes well below the figure paid by the average salaried individual, who has little choice in the matter. As a result, taxes from those on salaries exceed those paid by some of the wealthiest in our land. The warnings of impending financial collapse that have recently been given by the finance team should not be taken lightly. There is evidence everywhere of just such a disaster looming ahead, somewhere not very far away. We all know of people taking money out of the country for fear of a melt down at home. A general lack of confidence in the government’s ability to handle matters makes matters worse. The austerity measures, even if they are effectively put in place now, come too late and may fail to make any kind of real difference.

We wonder if the issue of agricultural tax came up during the high-level meeting. This would seem to offer one means of bringing in the additional resources that are so badly needed. The tax should have been put in place many years ago. But given the scale of the crisis we face, it is all the more vital that this happen now, before we lurch into an even darker financial nightmare. One of the reasons why the tax has not been imposed, and other measures such as land reforms have also not been carried out, is the fact that our parliament is made up, chiefly, of land-owners. Many of those who sit in our assemblies hold many acres of land. They are hardly likely to favour either taxation or major reform, and this means a vital source of revenue for the state, as well as a means to improve the lot of tens of thousands of people, remains shut off to us as a result of selfishness on the part of the ruling elite.

The result of all this is that we have a bankrupt state but a well-off elite. Whenever the issue of bankruptcy is raised, there is a cry for reducing state expenditure. Actually, if defence and public-sector enterprises – which should have been privatised a long time ago – are excluded, our structure of governance costs are among the lowest in the world.

Our state’s bankruptcy is thus not an expenditure issue but a revenue issue. We have survived so far on dole from the global community either by making ourselves strategically relevant or scaring the world into helping us. If this comes to an end and we are really confronted with the consequences of bankruptcy, social upheaval is bound to occur.

What would an economic collapse, such as the one feared here - look like? In short, it would begin by us defaulting on our international debt that would have massive consequences for our foreign trade. The currency would go into free fall, with galloping inflation. Food shortages would become a real possibility for a section of the people. Oil imports would be affected, disrupting our transportation system.

Our elites have thus far got away with excuses of "defending national interest". This is a lie in patently audacious contravention to what is truly going on - as any damned fool will be able to fathom.....but it seems, that our populace is worse than damned fools even.......having allowed all this and neither said nor done anything; they respond to Islamic fundamentalism - when a loony like Mumtaz Qadri commits a brutal murder; and yet they have nothing to complain when their very flesh is being consumed.........what is the worth of such wretches? Defending and enhancing “national interest” in the murky world of Third World parliamentary politics, with secret military agencies and foreign powers jostling for resources, influence or space, is a tall order. Neither Zardari, nor Nawaz Sharif, nor the centralised, first-past-the-post political system in vogue, is equipped to do the job. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The costs of the deals struck with the IMF have been heavy. The prices of utilities have gone up, people are pressed harder than ever and there is no sign of an economic upturn that could boost growth, generate jobs and possibly help people manage just a little better. Now we have even worse news. According to a report in this newspaper, the government will be raising power tariffs by two or three per cent each month - a process that will by June 2011 result in an increase of somewhere between 19.4 and 30.4 per cent. Over the last 30 months, tariffs have already gone up by a whopping 63.6 per cent. The incomes brought in by almost everyone in the country have meanwhile shrunk in real terms given the rate of inflation in the prices of vital goods. The degree of suffering has been intense.

It is to be asked how – in times when parents kill children they cannot feed, beggars increase in number along many streets and desperate families beg for food – any government can inflict such torture on people. Among the worst-affected of course are those too proud to beg. It is of course still more ironic that the measures come from a setup that claims to stand for the poor and was elected on this slogan. The impact of the power-tariff rise will be crippling. Independent groups should make an assessment of how families will manage. Will they cut back on food? On education for children? On healthcare? It is likely of course that all these vital areas and others will be affected. The government needs to state what is expects people to do. Its main responsibility, after all, is to serve the people. From the opposition too we need far more strident questions in parliament. The power-tariff rise is a huge issue. It should not be left only to the media to highlight its significance and the manner in which it will influence the welfare of millions of people who even now struggle to survive.

THE WAY THE AMERICAN GLOBAL COOKIE IS SET TO CRUMBLE.......

It is easy to see now - the way in which the cookie of the American global order will soon crumble: (1) the Arab uprising will soon sweep away the longstanding and crucial underpinnings of the American world order in most, if not all its territories; (2) the collapse of the old neocolonial elite regime of the Pakistani state is imminent, as it is already in a state of advanced decrepitude and dissolution - and is under insurgent attack also..... the popular reaction to the current "Raymond Davis affair" may hasten this process, or some other unforeseen political or economic event or situation may do so. But like a termite infested doorframe, it is ready anytime to crumble at a mere flick - whatever that may be. Apart from Israel, Pakistan is America's main stooge in the world - a Muslim stooge albeit, and one which is far more important than other US Muslim stooges like Saudi Arabia or Egypt; and (3) NATO is all but defeated in Afghanistan, and is struggling to maintain its daily grip there after a decade of fighting.....so the situation is really grave. Just as Afghanistan bled the USSR to death, it appears that it will have the same effect on its rival, and now lone, global power......

And last but not least - that isn't to mention the fact that the likelihood of another, more damning and "final" global economic collapse might just be months away, according to many experts. Oil is again increasing in price, and the US military engagements since 2001 have proved to be its longest war in history, and the costliest too........very few are aware that the $20 Trillion spent on this war so far has all but bankrupted the US.

The American order is just the pinnacle of the larger European political and economic supremacy that has lorded it over the world for the past 500 years now, dominated by England......reasonably speaking, the American Global Order is basically a latter day extension of the British Empire; it is a new British Empire that rose after the old declined from 1945. And so when it goes, the larger European order it actually represents will also follow suit. For all intents and purposes, I think that its time is now over. We must keep in mind the good things it has bequeathed mankind, and transfer that legacy effectively to the better new order in human affairs that will soon replace it.

TWO DECADES OF AN AMERICAN GLOBAL ORDER.......

Twenty years ago, a "Desert Storm" presaged the ultimate American ascendancy in the world. Right now, another "Desert Storm" is raging throughout the Arab world's societies, and it seems to be clearly pointing to the downfall of that American world order and its underpinnings. That is good too, for what did this order bring humanity, but untold greed, corruption and chaos? Twenty years ago, mankind was regaled with the glorious tidings of the birth of a new world, a Garden of Eden where "freedom and free enterprise" would rule the roost - after the fall of the drab and dreary monolith of the "Evil Empire"of Soviet Communism, that threatened the future of mankind with the worst form of slavery....and nuclear holocaust.....perhaps, but two decades later, we now really know the true identity of the actual evil empire straddling the globe a bit too well, only.....and where have we got to? Yes, "freedom" does rule the world, but in the "free-for-all" sense, it is evident.......

True, we did get the internet during this period - that is enabling me to share this - as well as being blessed with innumerable other technologies..........but we also got a generation of loutish youth, who write in the moronic SMS texting style. And we got another anomaly, a new type of terror - Islamic "stateless" terror, with a mentality from the age of the camel, but proficient in the use of nothing but the latest technology and gizmos. Returning to the internet, we now also have a profusion of those unfit people to whom it has given a voice, but who would be better off not having one. It has only increased the clamour, not the quality of the content. The same can be said about the glut of information deluging our overworked and buzzing brains on the internet and on cable TV channels. Old social order has been destroyed, yet nothing new has replaced it. Poor societies are still floundering in the ashes of their past. Manners and form have been decimated and replaced by cynicism and a devil-may-care informality prevails, hanging like a pall over everything. It is truly a dark age.

Like America that typifies it, this is an age of extremes too. This era could have been the gateway to an unprecedented new global human utopia, had America behaved properly, maturely and benevolently. There was a lot of anticipation way back in 1991. But I suppose, we expected too much........

But such outcomes can not be expected of a society that is based on the shopkeeper ethic - a linear process of increasing material output and consumption. Since the rise of the USA to absolute world dominion, we have seen nothing but a runaway spiral of increasing corruption - particularly in countries like Pakistan, not to talk of the world over. Over the past two decades, corruption has become a way of life in Pakistan - proliferating and "blooming" as never before. The cultures and societies of races like the Pashtuns - which already have criminality and lawlessness latent in their character - have also reached "full flower" in this period, having taken advantage as never before of the indiscriminate and irresponsible empowerment American Globalism and its disorderly practices have afforded them. If America were really the benevolent guardian of the world and civilisation as it poses to be, one of its first responsibilities would be to deal in an effective and efficient manner of whatever is required, regarding the kind of threat posed to international stability and wellbeing by the likes of delinquent and dysfunctional vermin like the Pashtuns......

So where will this disastrous tempo lead to? Surely, it can not last forever. And how near are we to the overall crash?......The more such vast power is abused and misused, the greater the damage incurred and the more horrendous the consequences for all involved. It seems that America wants to arrogate global leadership and control without the moral responsibility that goes with it; and that it might profit from deliberately inspired disorder in some cases....both are criminal suppositions, entailing the heaviest of consequences.

I believe that the end of this system is nigh, and that will be the most horrifyingly spectacular of all. It is too late to talk about amends now; this is the time of the onset of consequences...............

***Draft of an intended letter by the IRDC to the British FO - on the subject of British abetment of Pakistani corruption.....***

This draft has been composed by Arif Hasan Akhundzada, at the behest of HI&RH Prince Nicholas De Vere von Drakenberg, Sovereign Head of the Imperial and Royal Dragon Court (IRDC), for him to send to the British Foreign Office.

The times in which the world lives at present have never been as crucial or consequential for all concerned - in such a dire way as now......it is incumbent on those who have (been given) the power and ability, to put it to the best use not only for the good of all, but their own good too, and their survival......the time of collective responsibility is upon us, this time whether we like it or not, as the circumstances of the global village now ensure that there can be no escape or insulating oneself from the hard facts that one doesn't like.

I am writing to bring up with you the subject of UK-Pakistan relations. They have always been of central importance for obvious reasons, and that importance has assumed critical proportions in the present epoch. As you will know, the situation in Pakistan has been in a state of constant and terminal social, political and economic decline, especially for the past 25 years. The main reason for this is perceived to be the endemic and all pervasive culture of corruption engendered by the active involvement of the Pakistani Establishment and State in the Afghan "jihad"- at the behest of its Anglo-American patrons and their perceived geopolitical interests. As Newton's Third Law puts it, the reactions of this involvement have not only brought Pakistani society to the verge of a spectacular and dangerous ending - which I fear we will soon be witness to, but that these effects will also reach British (and Western) shores...in fact, they already have......

It is a known fact, that Pakistan is a successor state to the British Empire in India, and as such, the ties between the two peoples and governments at all tiers and levels are closer than those of many other bilateral relationships. In this context, I as the Dragon Prince, naturally have an abiding interest in these matters not only to the extent that they impinge upon the world and its future as a whole in a most direct manner in every sense, but that a key member and functionary from my court Arif Hasan Akhundzada also hails from the area - and he has not only been struggling against the negative consequences of the abovementioned improprieties as a main objective of his life, but he is also half-British and half-Pakistani and as such, is directly concerned. Being a Pashtun on his father's side and a resident of the Peshawar area, it can be said that he resides right in the centre of this geopolitical whirlpool.

Of special interest to me is the fact that Britain still plays they role of patron and mentor to the Pakistani ruling class - closer than America even, given Britain's 100 year colonial rule in the area of India now comprising Pakistan. It is a key aid donor, and it is also a known fact that Pakistan survives only because of foreign aid, of which the Western portion is the greatest - and among which Britain's contribution is crucial. But one of the reasons for Pakistan's terminal impasse is that this aid is almost entirely robbed by its rulers, and most of it finds its way back again to Britain - in the form of secret or discrete bank accounts, capital investments, luxury flats, palatial mansions, automobiles, objets d'art and so on. H.M Government and its intelligence service isn't that ludicrously naive not to know where this money comes from and how; the fact that it prefers to look the other way, nay, rather abet in this unsavoury business and also harbour, protect and defend those involved by providing asylum and succour - will not only have negative geopolitical repercussions, but is in very simple moral terms, reprehensible and criminal to say the least. It has led to degeneration of Pakistani society, which is now primed to explode - with far reaching and horrifyingly devastating consequences for that region, Europe and the world as a whole. Although those developments have now gone very far and are in the advanced stages now, it is never too late to firmly put a stop to cooperating with the corruption of the doomed Pakistani ruling class, and take measures to rectify, alleviate and heal as much of the damage that has already been done........failing which, Britain may soon find itself paying a price which it will regret very heavily indeed, yet be powerless to do anything about.

Pashtun (and Pakistani) extremist tendencies in the post-Taseer murder situation

Control, my friends, has now passed - from the tottering Pakistani state (it was a joke even before, but not yet tested).............to the "awam"....as, whatever our awam believe in, the buck always stops at Islam. Always. Now we will really see "people's power", till now an epithet which was the refuge of our rascal, and scoundrel "democratic" politicians, but no longer........now also, the cover of those has been blown who say that this society and our people are "not extremist"....

Salman Taseer's murder was like a signal, a switch being flicked - to alter the paradigm mode...it has the same significance on our level as 9/11 did for the world....and it is the murder of a governor, a key government functionary that crowds are now openly supporting - and not some private citizen even, like the lynching of the Qadiani lawyer Chaudry Riaz and his friend, by a mob in Shabqadar bazar way back in 1995....the Taseer case is without precedent in Pakistani history, and there is nothing that the rulers can do about it.....I think it will even be difficult for Zardari to hang Malik Mumtaz Qadri, being the characterless thief that he is....and no judge will dare sentence him; so it is a classic case of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea for the Pakistani state, which is otherwise terminally diseased, and our ramshackle and dysfunctional society - teetering as it has been on the edge of chaos for many years now.....

And now to the topic of this piece: about issues of terminology and truths, which devious people have been twisting since 9/11 at least, in trying to pull the wool over others eyes, and detract from what is basically an unpleasant situation....Till now, politically correct liars from across the whole socio-political spectrum were having a field day babbling to foreign media about how "moderate" and "sufi" Pakistani people are in their outlook, or how our Pashtun society is for that matter; about Pashtuns I can say they have always been 98% religious extremist: I remember the day that a "Panjpiri" was killed by a mob in a mosque in Charsadda in 1977....Panjpiris are a sect, originally from the village of the same name in Swabi, who are similar to Wahhabis, and who deny the veracity of sufi sainthood in Islam.....so it was the supposedly "moderate" followers of shrines who killed this man when it became known who he was, at a time when the word "Wahhabi" didn't even exist in the public vocabulary.....in other words, our people are inclined to Islamic extremism of any branding, whether Sufi or Salafi.......Sir Olaf Caroe has said that this probably was even the case with us when we were Buddhists, 2000 years ago, under Kushan rule: we were Buddhist fundamentalist extremists! But as we were and are still so bad at record keeping and preserving history, the annals of that time don't exist to corroborate this otherwise sensible deduction....Besides, any student of history will know that all the previous wars Pashtuns have fought against outsiders were religiously motivated and led by one kind of extremism or another - in this case sufis or saints; or what kind of trouble sufi fanatics and extremists gave the British colonial authorities (as well as Pakistanis).....Pir Rokhan, Jalala, Mullah Najmuddin of Hadda, Sar Tor Faqir, Lewanay Faqir, the Mad Mullah of Mian Isa, Akhund Darweza Baba, Pir Baba, Saidu Baba of Swat and Haji Fazle Wahid of Turangzai, the Shami Pir, and the Faqir of Ipi were not Wahhabi or Ikhwani fanatics or Maududi's poisonous followers, but all were of the now nauseatingly touted "sufi brand" which has been made to mean "moderate brand" since 9/11, but this is not historically true.........as Wahhabism was an illness not yet known (or accepted) here in those days, even though its creator Abdul Wahab lived in the 17th Century Hejaz, and yet another Indian "saint", Shah Waliullah and his "saintly" protegés Shah Ahmad and Shah Ismail, and much later on, that adventurer of doubtful provenance Syed Jamaluddin Afghani were all on a similar path....And lack of space here dictates that I am unable to treat this subject with the detail it deserves; however a book published many decades ago by a notorious Pakistani bureaucrat and anthropologist Akbar S. Ahmed and titled "Millenium and Charisma among Pathans" gives an otherwise beautiful historical account of our extremist doctrinal tendencies. I must add here, that even the Afghan Pashtun Khalqi "comrades" of my past, whom I had met - were as vehemently fanatical about their "communism" as their other brethren are about Islam! Look at what they and their wayward leader Hafizullah Amin did in three months, to the prospects of Afghanistan's otherwise promising revolution.

If we are to get any where, then we must face - not deny - the unpleasant facts about ourselves; only then can we hope to do anything about them, and get anywhere, surviving as a respectable nation in the world comity of nations. We need to be reformers, as well as nationalists. It is now a matter of our bare survival; and the truth will out...always....

Before ending this, I will reiterate that it is just that conditions in this society are now ripe for the full emergence - after a long gestation - of what till now was bubbling violently under the surface.....

One who escaped the hangman's noose......

Major General (R) Naseerullah Khan Babar died yesterday in Peshawar (10 January 2011). He was the principal architect of the Taliban in 1993, "Robber in Chief" of the priceless Scythian and Buddhist antiquities of Kabul Museum - and a typical rascally drunkard Pakistani general, politician and pompous bandit, faithful dog, lackey and longstanding servant of his British and American imperialist godfathers. In his latter days, he was allied to the late and most lamented and martyred Bandit Queen of our politics......


It is most dissapointing to see that this flabby old pig died peacefully of natural causes without being brought to account for his heavy record of crimes - and that he didn't live till the time that he could be suitably tried and disposed off at the end of a hangman's rope, or by facing a firing squad.......

The way the wind now blows in Pakistan.....

It is now abundantly clear which way the wind is blowing in this country - after the murder of Salman Taseer: it seems likely that we will get a revolution against the dysfunctionality and corrupt decadence of the much hated traditional elites of our state and society - but it will not be the kind of progressive or secular or non-religious ideology that me or you desire or wished for - but a dark Islamic fundamentalist cultural upwelling.....European thought and genuine superior culture/progress stand discredited not only due to the excesses of the capitalist hue that European culture has acquired since the dark victory of the US World Order in 1991 - but also because the West is now synonymous with modern (European) culture in the inferior eyes of the Pakistani common man.........and it is seen as the supporter of our Westernised corrupt ruling elites, which is true...............who was it, after all, that introduced the perilous combination of revitalised Islam and runaway chaos and open corruption in this society? The Western powers, who lord it over the world, together with their Pakistani elite henchmen were responsible for this...the resultant consequences of which will now blow back squarely into their faces......It serves these dark forces of evil right, if nothing else............

The murder of Salman Taseer has revolutionized the direction in which the diseased Pakistani state and its ramshackle society were drifting. It was an event with paradigm-shifting significance.......now the state has finally been openly disobeyed by the mobs comprising undeniably large majority sections of the pakistani populace itself...our "democrats" and their American backers emphasised the "voice of the people" ad nauseum; well here it finally is....Like it, eh?

Now it remains to be seen what the world will do regarding the coming Pakistani social upheaval.... Western world power is beset with troubles, and to prophecy its decline is not an overstatement.....nearby world powers like Russia and China - which are more sensible in realistic decision making than the liberal, "free" West will undoubtedly dislike the coming developments and recognise their destabilising nature - and may well consider taking the appropriate steps......

The murder of Salman Taseer - a watershed development in the downward spiral of the Pakistani state.......

The Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was assasinated the other day in Islamabad by his own police guard. Taseer had stirred controversy by befriending a poor Christian woman, who was accused of "blaspheming" the prophet of Islam - and was sentenced to death for this under this law. The guard was of a similar opinion, and after "doing his Islamic duty", calmly gave himself up to his collegues - and also said as much.

Taseer, who was also half-English, was among the very few that can be categorised as being better from among the debauched and dissolute corrupt coterie he belonged to - the Pakistani ruling elite. Besides being a politician of sorts, he was basically an honest, self-made businessman, who pioneered the field of chartered accountancy in Pakistan, as well as initiating several pioneering ventures in the IT, telecom and media/publication sectors of the Pakistani economy. It was because of the same candid and forthright nature of his, that he spoke out unabashedly against the so-called "blasphemy law" - the way one should. He was a brave man - but then, unlike the run of the mill of his Pakistani neocolonial liberal elite class counterparts who like to portray themselves as the champions of progress (in the form of debauched drink parties and drug "raves", presumptive English accents and fashion shows....) - he had the moral courage to do what he did and stand for; that was because, like in my case, his mother was an old-school Victorian-reared English lady......it was Taseer's English blood speaking in him, not his Pakistani side (otherwise he would have been just like the rest we see around....). It was his English blood too, that expressed his broadminded sympathy for a victimised Christian....none of the others would have gone to these lengths, not even the traditional lip service they always so profusely offer.

The deed has been done, and its origins in the Jihadi mischief first sown by the corrupt and gangster Punjabi military state of Pakistan can clearly be seen. But rather than simply regarding this event as the shameful murder of a remarkable man, it needs to be seen in its larger symbolic context: it marks a watershed event, a point-of-no-return in the steadily spiralling loss of control being suffered by our gangster elite, to the vile Islamic germs of their own previous creation, that have now turned against them....It can be said to have set a precedent for what is to come....Of course, decisive measures and bold steps would be prescribed in this situation - but does this decrepit elite have the moral credibility and calibre and simple writ left, to do so? I think not. This has presented them with a challenge of survival. In addition to their corruption, they are pathetic: they now imitate the decadent liberal trends of their Western patrons and godfathers - "civil society", clothed in fancy designer apparel and Gucci shades, lighting candles and leaving teddy bears and bouquets at the site. This has been the case ever since the banner of progress and global influence passed into "Western" hands in 1991; most thought it signalled the start of a new global paradigm for humanity (like Mr. Francis Fukuyama)...but alas, this vision turned out to be a mirage, letting down those who thought that Stalinism would give way to a joyous bourgeios "free" world......during the past 20 years. When "Islamising" this society in the 1980s - the otherwise drunkard Pakistani generals had the support of their US godparent - which thought it would also come in useful in their anti-Soviet strategy, as well as for extinguishing the Afghan revolution. The elite was hunky-dory, thinking that it would remain protected and insulated from the Islamic "medicine" they were spreading in their society - within the confines of their cocoon of plush drawing rooms, drinking their Black Labels and Blue Labels till they were silly; and they laughed, thinking they could use these Islamisation measures to control and exploit the simple peasantry which really believes in all this stuff...this gave rise to a duplicity that in the end not only deceived the liar himself....but also caught them neatly by their bollocks in the end. What a horrendous miscalculation! The wind blew the poison back, squarely in their face! Their American overlords had the same smug ilusions, that the Islamic virus they were unleashing in Central Asia, would remain in the region and do their dirty work for them - but never make it to fair Western shores.....

There are some strange inconsistencies in the events of Taseer's assasination however, that need explaining. Was the fanatic guard acting of his own volition? He is later reported to have said that he discussed his plans with his fellow guards...indeed, they didn't restrain or shoot him as he did the deed. Was he egged on, or set up secretly by others, who wanted rid of Taseer, for other reasons? Taseer after all, was a formidable adversary. These aspects will need investigation....

So what to do now? As I said - it is a bit too late, but if I were at the helm of this decayed, sinking ship, I would have done what I could in emergency steps. The first step would be to tackle the assasin in a direct and summary way without much complex "legal" ado, of which our Punjabi compatriots and other ethnic Indians seem to be very fond, and preoccupied with: after straightening out the details of the case, this man should be hanged publicly, so that he can quickly be dispatched to "heaven", to meet his "martyr's reward" of 75 "houris" to which such people are (said to be) "entitled"......the body should then be cut and the dismembered pieces tarred and gibbeted publicly, as in the old English style, to serve as a long standing warning to others...better people have had this treatment in history....and I would even consider executing his siblings and close family alongside of him - to drive the message home more effectively, as we now seem to have no dearth of the martyr types........that not only them but their whole damned tribes will stand to pay for such acts.

The liberal "democrats" and fashionistas, with gaudy educations from Cheltenham and Wellesley Colleges - in Prada shades with Louis Vuitton bags may retch and retort with loud yells at my suggestions; and numerous "amnesty" and "sans frontiéres" oganisations in London and Paris and the like will join in the indignant chorus with them..... but then they are not really acquainted with the dark and extreme characteristics of the unwashed of their culture and society to which they claim to belong and administer from their Coco Chanel cocooons and Bahria Town gated enclaves.....and they need telling that the whole world is not the West, and neither will it ever likely be.

And why should we stop at Mumtaz Hussain Qadri? All those - especially in the past 30 years - from generals, politicians and mullahs who were involved in the Jihadi mischief need to be hunted down and ferreted out and tackled similarly. Only on such a path can effective struggle be initiated and sustained somewhat hopefully..but canit be done now? Is there even a modicum of calibre left for initiating such measures? Do they have the moral sanction, courage and abilities? Can the debauchs now known as politicians, and at the helm of power in this crumbling state machine undertake such measures? Who will "bell the cat", and can "cast the first stone?".....this is not a matter of Pakistan alone, but of almost all its constituents.....if tomorrow Pakistan falls apart, the same problems will beset its successors too.......

Sh*tfield Haven...........

In Pashtun areas, just as in most of the Subcontinent and Central Asia, public toilets are negligibly found; the few that exist are in such a state, that it would make a proper person ill just to set foot in them. "Our" toilet culture and habits, like all else, is dirty. And most rural peasant houses don't even have them. So fields are used as toilets, with the word "empty" in Pashto signifying the act of relieving oneself, while "full" means easing oneself.....Muslim men are traditionally obliged to do the former against any convenient wall or drain, in an elaborate crouching manner; whereas fields are used for the "full" work, given its nature. These fields are not just limited to village ones, but any empty plot of land in residential areas, including posh ones will serve the purpose. When we were kids in the 1970s and early 80s, our house in Peshawar's posh University Town suburb had just one such field adjacent, which was used by most servants (including our own) and many passers by.....we grew up, used to living with the fecal stench hanging in the air. Being naughty, we often used to climb onto the roof to watch the "proceedings". Of course, normally all the "doers" were carefully shrouded under a "tent", made by putting the traditional sheet or "saadar" ("Chaddor") that Pashtun men carry as a part of their dress in all seasons; it comes in handy for such purposes. But at night, there was no such botheration under the cover of darkness. I often used to take a torch with me onto the roof to flash on "suspects", and even used a catapult on occasion on the defecator. One night, the field was particularly full at a given time, as there were many voices coming from it. I quickly ascended to the roof,with my torch, which revealed 5-6 men sitting around the field, in full "view"....I then shone my torch carefully on each, "spotlighting" them.........a volley of complaints and abuse followed....Of course, I am not only recounting this childhood escapade to tell readers about the real worth of "our" Neolithic culture alone - but my shining the torch on those defecating men that night seems very similar to what Julian Assange of WikiLeaks has recently done, in revealing thousands of murky "classified" documents about disgraceful goings on in the world.......

The current US Obama regime (not "administration") says doing this is "reckless", and may "put lives at risk"....pray, the lives of whom? Those who invade countries on doctored pretexts? Those who have cooked up Islamic terrorism, and revived its terrible culture - to serve their own nefarious ends? They NEED to die....they SHOULD die, be put to death.....they are the scum of the earth, just like those lowly Pashtun defecators.......their mischief and activities have made the world a bad place....

PAKISTANI SOCIETY'S EXTREMISM AND HYPOCRISY REVEALED

No matter what our two-pence ha'penny politicians may try to do in order to obfuscate the truth about their society, truth will out - always....as it has in the four news articles detailed below, from one edition, regarding "public outrage" across Pakistan at the possible amendments to the infamous "blasphemy law". It can only be said that this means that the general Western impression about Pakistani society is true - that it is a society of extremists on the whole.......something that the politically correct scum of the mainstream will denounce as propaganda, "stereotyping" and "paranoid anti-Islamism"............not so. "Pakistan", they say, "is an enlightened society, and our religion is the fairest in the world, a religion of peace and tolerance giving equal rights to women and minorities like no other........" Yes, indeed......the articles below speak for themselves. Our last military president Musharraf went to great lengths to expound repeatedly to the world that "only 10% of the society consists of radicalised miscreant extremists and terrorists, while 90% is peaceful and enlightened..." I would reverse that statement, and modify the values somewhat to put it thus: "about 5% here can be termed as being balanced and reasonable - or indifferent - in outlook, while the rest of the great 95% majority are violently disposed, and are generally of inflammatory and bigoted tendency in their religious outlook................." and I might add that sadly the great bulk of my Pashtun society is now spearheading this Pakistani Islamic extremism and revivalism (and indeed in Afghanistan - as well as on the global level), over and above the rest of their compatriots and co-religionists.....no doubt giving the lie to the politically correct nonsense and feel-good denial touted around by impotent minority politicians and sidelined "nationalists" about how "peace loving and law abiding" Pashtun society is, and how these innocent poor tribal souls are getting pounded and minced by US Drones every hour of the day.....of course the naked truth is hated by those worthless politicians with "vested interests" and the NGO groupies and "neoliberal" types - who now rule the world as the accessories and legionnaires of the American empire's dark global order.......... So sample this bitter truth in the articles below:



Nation protests any change in blasphemy law

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=3047&Cat=13&dt=1%2F1%2F2011



City shuts in protest at bid to change blasphemy law

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=23255&Cat=4&dt=1%2F1%2F2011



Amendment to blasphemy law: Peshawar observes complete shutdown

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=23320&Cat=7&dt=1%2F1%2F2011



Protests staged across KP - at proposed amendments in blasphemy law

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=23322&Cat=7&dt=1%2F1%2F2011

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The article below is about another related, yet very interesting phenomenon: it highlights another favourite proclivity of the intensely "devout" Pakistanis - one which is expressly forbidden by their "extremely beloved" religion - drinking...but this is an indulgence which they manage to reconcile alongside their religious vehemence without any compunction at all. The fact that they manage to accommodate these two glaring contradictions side by side very comfortably, and without the slightest qualm.... all serves to give some very penetrating insights into the nature of the particular collective psychopathology at work in this social cesspit. Such schizoid duplicity is second nature in this society, and is completely acceptable and considered as "normal" here. In fact, those who eschew such warped attitudes are considered as simpletons or "abnormal" here. Yours Truly is also from among this abnormal minority......

No doubt, if you confront these people regarding their negative behaviour, like rascals they will always try to drown you in loud and contentious argument, instantly attributing their woes to "foreign conspiracies" and "interference"...many others will straight-facedly proffer the equally rascally explanation, that since Muslims are the followers of God's best and most favourite religion, Satan is given to focusing his exclusive attention on Muslims in order to tempt them most....the followers other religions, you see, aren't worth that much.....but like all good specimens of the Devil's brood - if that expression may be used - they will never own up to their multiple unsavoury realities honestly, for what they are, and as being inherent within them....for that would mean a transformation of soul they will never be prepared to make, as long as they exist, I am sure.

Of course, their drinking and the accompanying hypocrisy wouldn't be that reprehensible, if they did not make such an untoward and violent exaggeration of their "religious sensibilities"...but it appears that they are as extreme in getting drunk as they are in their bigotry. Their excessive drinking and accompanying hypocrisy not only reflect greed, but the former may also be a form of behavioural release mechanism - for the people of this culture and society are highly egotistic, and highly inhibited and therefore highly unstable and insecure by nature......



10 million Pakistanis drink alcohol

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=2991&Cat=13&dt=12%2F29%2F2010%EF%BB%BF