Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Days 210-214 – Days of Bhuttos death and the Coma of Pakistan

Published on December 31, 2007 in Politics. 0 Comments

This is one of the events that You can within hours from the moment when it happened find hundreds of news on the web. In the same day as she died, Benazir had a page on Wikipedia dealing with her assasination…

What I think of her? Hard to say… I have met a person who was her advisor and he claimed that she was not corrupted and all of it were untrue accusations, I have met people who have no doubt that she, or at least her husband (thats nearly for sure) had stolen a lot of money, I have read articles about her being the Prime minister and was not too impressed… but now it doesnt matter much.

I want to share with You the moment of the event and what came after, from my point of view.

1. Assasination, 27th December 2007, 5 pm (I think)

I am sitting in the common room of the university dorms, writing some stuff for the conference. In one moment a bunch of boys run in, turn on the TV and speak to each other in excited (not at all grieving) voices. My assumption is that Pakistan won some cricket match… I am told what happened, still the tone of voice is “maaan this is so cool!”. I can imagine my face looking like somebody kicked my balls – my first thought: “We (Pakistan) are so fucked, so fucked!” The boys watch the news. Quatations:

random guy: “Yeah, one gone, good”
me: “what do You mean?”
random guy: “one of the old ones gone, only Nawaz Sharif and Musharaf left”
me: “and who comes after, please tell me?”
random guy: “[unsure] I dont know, anybody!”

random guy: “man, whats up with You? You look like it was Your country? ”
me: “well, it somehow is and I do think we are fucked, so fucked, all gone, AIESEC is fucked, but thats just the top of iceberg…”
random guy: “oh come on, its not like its the end of world, it will get fine, dont worry, dont be scared, we have survived worse”
me: “well, honestly, You are fine because You have seen worse and can wait months or years till it calms down, I want it to be get calmer NOW, I wanted to have a conference and have only 6 months left to do what I want here before I leave…”
random guy: “[quiet for a moment] well, we will live here…”
me: [this time me quiet]

2. reactions, 27th December 2007, 10 pm

random friend: “Whats up? How are You?” [in an optimistic voice]
me: “Honestly, You know whats up and I feel shitty ” [snapping back]
random friend: “Oh, well, yeah…” [shocked goes away]
…meeting him after a while again
random friend: “I want to tell You something: When I asked You I didnt think You would care too much, thats first, and second just a while before I have met You, [insert name] has told me that I should not act that pesimistic and rather be myself, in order to chear up people…”
me: [feeling pretty bad] “well, sorry, I didnt mean to… Its just the thing that when You ask me `How are You?` I actually tend to answer, because I am not a Native English speaker… ”
unknown guy walking by : “Hi [friends name] ”
random friend : “Hi, how are You…. ” [turns to me] “Actually You are right, I did it again…”
me: “Well, doesnt matter, I am still sorry… I just feel like this will be pretty bad…”

3. Coma of Pakistan

In books they sometimes write that the country went into a stand still in shock… Pakistan didnt… People have been talking and looking for more people to talk with about the event (educated part) or went to the streets and starting to burn random stuff (uneducated part)…

The country went into stand-still only for those who didnt dare for the next three days to enter the streets and stayed at home scared of the random violence on the streets…

….and from there its known history: mobs started to burn down the cities – cars, banks, shops, stalls, anything that comes under their hands goes down… My opinion on this is in the article called “Day 212 (29.12.07) – Why does man kill angels? In everyone of us is a beast… “

Day 214 (31.12.07) – Hard to recapitulate a year… on a random day

Published on December 31, 2007 in Normal Karachi and personal. 0 Comments

Here am I, Lahore, Pakistan, 7 months out of home, 6 months on the job, 1 year and a half after graduation, 24 years old, 8 months since I have met a girl worth falling in love with and 4 months since I met her last time, no money spared and no intension to join normal work force soon…

Seems like a good day to recapitulate 2007? Well, not really… Not for me. This year finished not very remarkably. True I am being stuck in Lahore due to historical events, but actually I am just stuck in a place where nothing changes and days just pass by.

In a situation like this You really find out that there is nothing remarkable about the midnight of 31st of December… Its just a symbol a nudge for us to accept that one year is gone and start planning for next. But it also shows that any day can be the “judgement“… I guess I will skip it today and make it some other day.

…whatta a dull post. Lets make it little better… my year 2007 in photos…

But still… happy new year… and not just one.. all of them.. and may all be new and exciting

And if some of You are interested what is going on on the pictures, or why are they there, just ask me by email, I will reply, If I want to… (no offence, some of them are insider only)

Day 213 – The political Dynasty of Bhutto

Published on December 30, 2007 in Politics. 0 Comments

I just felt like giving a little bit food for thought to those who talk about PPP (Benazir) and democracy (in general) in Pakistan…

I am not going to tell You much, only basic assumptions of mine (no objectivity is guaranteed): what kind of promise for Democracy can bring a political party that for the last three generations is lead by the same family?

See… PPP was founded by Zulfikar Bhutto, who became hero while being the leader of Pakistan because he had people (left wing) oriented orientation. At the end of his rule, he rather became unpopular (some people say he started to behave like a dictator) and was executed after the military coup. After this, and after it was clear that General Zia (who did the coup) is even worse, Zulfikar became a hero again.

And thus first his wife and later his daughter (Benazir) was appointed to bethe head of the party, the daugther actaully as a life-long chairman (!). She lead the party and, after General Zias mysterious death (plane explosion), became a prime minister twice, she didnt show herself very skilled when it comes to managing the country. During this time she has accepted an arranged marriage with Asif Zardari. A rich man, who got famous for very huge corruption scandals, while being an important person in Benazirs government and PPP. In both cases of her prime-ministering she was discharged due to corruption cases…

She got back from exile when it was obvious that Musharafs power is decreasing. After first unsucessful terrorist attack in Karachi (150 ppl dead) she was killed on the 27th in Rawalpindi…

Her 19-year old son Bilawal and husband were chosen to be co-chairmans of the party (also Benazirs sister was one option). One of the party officials said that the “PPP workers would not accept a non-Bhutto leadership“. The roles have been clear already at the begining = Zardari said news-guys should ask him as Bilawal is in a “tender age” and sent him to finish school…

Am I bias? Might be… Most of all I wrote this because very soon BB will become a martyr and talking about the negatives will not be appropriate (it actually already is) and secondly and more importantly – I am sad, that the “only hope for democracy and peace”, how BB was called e.g. in Slovak newspapers, was a person with such a history… end

Day 213 – Being in the centre of news…

Published on December 30, 2007 in Politics and Thinking mood. 0 Comments

I just was thinking about how I have, inwillingly, become “courageous man”, “thrill seeker”, “adventurer” and generally in the middle of “historical events”.

Lets look back… I have never been a real adventure seeker, from time to time I took a decision to do something crazy, but most of the time it was far away from being dangerous… You might say that I went to Pakistan – which surely was a “dangerous” choice. Honestly? It was not… At time of my application I both didnt know much about Pakistan situation and there was not much going on in the country… And than, later when unrest came, there was a second aspect of mine – once I accepted the fact that I am going to Pakistan, I have filtered all the negative info…

Lets look at present situation… I am in the middle of “turning points of history“, “horrible tragedies” and whatever… Foreign friends of mine here are writing articles to newspapers back at home about what is going on in Pakistan, but I, who always wanted to be important, am not able even to update my blog.

Why? The biggest problem is that I am in the centre of news, but am not in the centre of the events. I go to the same webpages that You do (plus a few I know and You dont know about, e.g. www.dawn.com – english news about Pakistan) and see the same news and do assumptions You can do… So what should I write about?

Everybody is asking me if I am safe and how it is. Well my version of the events of the last two weeks is: I am at the dorm, where most of students have not been able to arrive, so the uni had holidays, trains dont run and we dont have money for plane, so we can not at present go back to Karachi, thats why we are stuck here, parts of city are supposed to be unsafe, so we dont actually go out of the campus, during the day we just roam around bored and from time to time hear sounds from distance about which we can not agree if it is: fireworks, riots or a guy celebrating a wedding…. And thats IT!

I have no new way how to answer questions about how am I or how is it, only thing I can offer special are the contents of discusions with local people about the situation, and those I am trying to offer You through this page with its random articles…

…and thats it, I know it was a boring piece of text, but felt like sharing

for something better read e.g. articles of Andrew or Emad or Cileia or just go to Facebook and read some of the notes.

Day 212 – Why does man kill angels? In everyone of us is a beast…

Published on December 29, 2007 in Politics and Thinking mood. 0 Comments

I am sorry to surprise You, but I am not talking about Benazir… She was far from an angel, I want to tell You about a man and his mission, a man nobody of You has ever heard about, who has started an organisation that wants to save the world….

Abdul Sattar Edhi – a man who from nothing has created the “largest and most organized social welfare system in Pakistan. Foundation works round the clock, without any discrimination on the basis of color, race, language, religion or polictics. The Foundation modifies the phrase “Live and let live” to “Live and help live”.” Foundation that owns the worlds biggest privately owned ambulance car fleet. A organisation=man who does for Pakistan what in other countries government is trying to do – care about the common people – but much more effectivelly.

Simply said: if You are born, ill, orphaned, injured, mentally or physically handicapped, addicted, poor and unskilled girl, raped, on run from family, uneducated in jail, street dog or just dead… in all these cases Edhi foundation, run solely from private donations, will take care about You… for free.

You have to understand that this man has created an organisation that is saving thousands of lifes of people and thousands of animals every year… With no benefit for himself – he still owns only a small flat (with only a table and two chairs), that he inherited from his mother, two pairs of clothes and well, the whole Edhi foundation, because he audits every expense in it…

…Why am I saying all of this?

Because there was only one moment that made me cry out (in both meaning of word) during the last days of blasts, shootings and riots… While reading this simple line:

29/12/07: Buildings and ambulances run by the Edhi Foundation, a charity that runs welfare centres, were vandalised. “Seven of our centres have been burnt in Karachi. Nineteen of our ambulances have been burnt, and eight others have been damaged,” said Anwar Ali Kazmi, a spokesman for the non-governmental organisation.

To finish the info: rioters had burned or damaged 947 vehicles, 131 banks and 31 petrol stations up until midnight on Friday. Dozens of banks, vehicles and fast food outlets were set on fire in Hyderabad. Six people died in Karachi on Friday after a factory was set ablaze, while more than 2,000 people torched a police station and stole weapons, police said.

I have always known a man is suicidal and acts without sense when in frenzy, but this is just too much.

My understanding of all peoples movements has been changed. Forget about men trying to free themselves or act together in a protest… Most of them are hell-sheeps, sheeps because they follow the crowd and act like it… To the extent that when the crowd shows anger, these hellish sheeps find the beast in them – and let it out.

…both God and Devil participated at our creation, thats the only explanation I have. Only few people can be admitted to heaven without doubts… but the rest of mankind takes some sick pleasure in destroying their work.

Days 192-209 – Lahore, Lahore and again Lahore (beautiful place)

Published on December 26, 2007 in Cultural and Lahore. 0 Comments

Three weeks it is that I have spent in Lahore – sleeping over at the trip to India, visiting of the AIESEC branch, Eid and Christmas, Benazirs assasination, “moarning” riots…. I can not say that I am tired of this city, it was really a nice experience to be a tourist again

There are generally three chapters of the story:

1. Regale Internet Inn

This travelers hostel situated on the Mall street, main street of Lahore, actually walking distance from the Old city … Doesnt look much from outside, but offers accomodation only for foreigners for 150-200 Ruppes per night (SO cheap compared to others) and that includes free drinking water, european style washroom, washing machine, internet, TV, comfortable roof-terrace, library, non stop security and most of all – lots of other random travelers who can give You the best advises…

Apart from this, the owner Mr. Malik has lots of interesting things to talk about and organizes every Thursday a trip to a Sufi shrine where the “mystic” drumming and chanting and tranceing is going on…

2. The sightseeing in Lahore

Very nice time – going around and seeing all the (most famous) interesting places. Lahore has lots to see and You dont feel like a “normal” tourist, because there is nearly no foreigners and the places are really interesting.

On the flip side, YOU are often a bigger attraction for locals than the places (so they keep staring at You and try to find out: “what is Your name”, “where are You from” etc.) and to every nice place You go, there will be somebody who wants to show You “something beautiful” and ask for money afterwards

I have seen e.g. Badshahi mosque (after 400 years, still one of biggest mosques in the world), Minar-e-Pakistan, the trio of Jahangirs, Asaf Khans and Nur Jahans Tombs, Food Street, Daata Darbar (Sufi saints shrine) and lots of other random places…