Karachi Burning

Courtesy: Musaafir-e-Dasht.

"So, it did feel like hell broke loose yet again on Karachi when hundreds of shops were burnt as a supposed aftermath to the Ashura blasts. Families ruined. Businesses lost. And death prevailed. No, those who burnt the shops and markets were not those who were in the procession. Rather they had nothing to do with those were busy mourning the deaths of their dear ones. They were quite 'known' people. People who had planned it all before hand. People who made sure that they use chemicals when putting the markets to flame. People who claim to own the city. And let us not go very far - those who remember hearing the video I posted on my blog sometime back, regarding the surreptitious Blackwater activities in the city, would also remember who was aiding them establish a stronghold here...

Ironically, not a single person had the courage to take names - names of the people, names of the organistaions involved. Media - what to say of it but et tu, Brute (As always!)? All they had to tell us were the same immaculately woven tales regarding the 'taliban' and the 'religious extremists' (by the way, nowadays anyone who practices religion is an 'extremist'). So, all in all, what followed the highly unfortunate incident was a heap of falsehood struck right into teh face of the avaam who are being constantly 'requested' to be on their guard against any dehshatgard that they might find amongst them!

How truly and beautifully some poet said:

دامن پہ کوئی داغ نہ خنجر پہ کوئی چھینٹ

"تم قتل کرو ہو کہ کرامات کرو ہو

I also ponder: Why is that in this age a religious person, the religion in question must always be Islam, is an extremist, when the West has gone to extremes, not us? Why people around call be a bare 'fanatic' for I do not approve of sitting before this 'plug-in drug' called TV, although I approve of all monitors, nonetheless?

Questionnaire: Help needed!

Sociologist and education-theorist (to-be or not to-be) Mr. Umer Toor is talking to you. He is thinking to plan to commence on an independent research adventure involving bunch of school kids, the notorious 'tv' and a questionnaire form.

Well, the purpose of this "statistical" research - hopelessly - is to know the "TV consumption-patterns"/"viewing habits" of Pakistani children, age range 11-14; and to judge that whether parents need to excercise control over TV viewing of their kids (or nabalgaan) or not; and that whether should TV be banished or not (the last question is simple and research-proof), etc., etc.? Seriously.

I ask you to help me formulate survey questions that can dig up and extract right information from the subjects' mind. Questions have to be subtle, e.g., if I ask them: How many hours you watch TV? That's a VERY important question. But with this type of a question they're going to get lost in counting hours, and are susceptible to give inaccurate answers. But if I ask them that in which part(s) of the day they watch it, they'll instantly be able to recall it.

Finally. The results of the research are going to be very important for parents and society at large. I will be visiting different schools in Lahore. This is an opportunity for you to contribute to intellectual capital of humanity and Muslim ummah in particular. I want to assure myself again that it's not a class assignment, rather purely an intellectual pursuit.

What suggestions do you have?

Switching on TV

"To switch on a television is to acknowledge one’s own lack of refinement."

Abdul-Hakim Murad.

Read more of his contentions here.

A sufficient argument for the elimination of t.v.

A gadget named t.v. was introduced some decades back in Pakistan, and like Muslim countries, with the view that, okay, if we can't bomb them directly, let's feed them tom and jerry, star moives, HBO, and above all, I Love Lucy. When a muslim walks down the road, he lowers his gaze, whether literally, or, at the least, he suppresses his lust. We could have kept our children and youth safe from the "grossness" of t.v., but the problem was that within a flash of second, the time taken to jump from a hardly "safe" channel to an "unsafe", no one was able to lower their gaze or control their lust. We gradually, along with the whole civilization, except a select few, sank into the miseries of immodesty, and hence utter misery. Their is only one argument that suffices for our position of elimination of the of t.v. (take it as an augmented product in present context, and its basic nature as well): "Verily, the gaze is a poisonous arrow from the arrow of Satan." TV should then be considered as an atom bomb.

Asia tops in internet usage across the world

The graph below speaks for itself. TV is no more a "be-all", passive medium for Asians, being no more than an addictive medicine we plug-in to suppress the symptoms of loneliness and emptiness of our character. While internet, though a potential addiction as well, is nonetheless a "Two-way" medium in which the consumer not only consumes but is able to produce things as well, like for example this blog post I'm creating. Happily, the Asians, so-called 3rd world dwellers, are top users of internet worldwide.
Another surprising thing to note is that is the explosion of usage or growth within a span of 9 years in Asia. Internet Users by Dec. 31, 2000: 114,304,000. Latest data: 738,257,230. Increase in users: 42.6%, unsurpassed once again. And. These are not the blessings conferred upon us by the White Man.

Read complete analysis here.