Pedophilia in Pakistan...veiled debauchery

While we have the bearded crazies blowing up your local supermarket during the day time, nightime in pakistan reveals the jinns the avid Quran reader might recall (I forget the passage, sorry- my quranic readings are a bit rusty). Pedophilia knows no bounds; country, culture, religion, socio-economics. And it is pervasive everywhere. The problem is that in Pakistan, it is not only pervasive, but also condoned by the lack of laws punishing pedophiles or protecting the abused. There are so many levels to this endemic that your humble blog-writer knows not where to start from. So lets start with the 'rich and famous' (or the gaudy and uneducated)- like SAH (initialized because I don't want to be sued), a so-called fashion designer and socialite residing in Karachi- who is openly a pedophile. [Openly: acting publicly or without concealment, as a person (dictionary.com)]. Yet he has friends, clients, a support group- all knowingly, who or un-knowingly, act as co-conspirators in this perverse mental illness. While he can behave like a depraved animal and get away with crimes such as child rape and molestation because of his social status, others without his nouveau riche origins also get away with similar behavior.

Why do we let pedophiles go scot-free in our society? Pedophilia is not that uncommon by trusted relatives on children who do not even know what is going on. Are we blind to let this happen over and over again? And the punch line is, even when adults become aware of that a family member is abusing a child in the family, they are unwilling to speak out against it. What are we teaching our children? Do not speak out if you have been wronged- respect authority even if it is abusing you- family is more important than your bodily rights- pedophilia is normal, get used to it. It is certainly easier to pray five times a day than confront a child abuser in your family, but why is it so difficult to recognize a crime in our country? Why does no one print a picture of SAH picking up kids for his personal enjoyment? Why can no one look at a child abuser and say, enough- don't you dare step in this house and I do not care if you are my brother-in-law, my cousin, or my brother. What is more important than a child's right to a carefree innocent childhood?

We need to change our society from within. Pakistan is in trouble in more ways than one, and for more reasons than can be considered in this blog. But we need to have laws, laws that are enforced by a police force free of corruption, that protect children from such animals, whether they are relatives of the children or sick people like SAH who feel they can use and abuse children at will just because they can afford to. We need to get rid of this hypocrisy in our society before we can move forward as a nation-until then we can only wait to hear the "thud" when we soon hit the bottom of the barrel.

Fall Break in Pakistan...wooohoo!

"How to take a holiday in Pakistan" by Hugh Sykes- gives us hope:

How to take a holiday in Pakistan
By Hugh Sykes
BBC News, Pakistan


Suicide bombs, battles in tribal areas, and states of emergency tend to put off casual tourists. But the impression such events convey can often be misleading and unrepresentative of a country as a whole.

A few days ago I was sitting in a cafe sipping best Italian espresso and reading a news magazine.

The front page was full of furious faces and clenched fists under the headline, The Most Dangerous Nation in the World isn't Iraq, it's Pakistan.


The cafe was in a smart bookshop in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

I sighed and turned to the article inside.

It was a revealing analysis of some penetration of a few places in Pakistan by the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

I pondered the magnifying-glass effect of dramatic news coverage.

The suicide bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto's homecoming parade in Karachi in October, which killed an estimated 140 people, and the assault on a Taleban pocket in the Swat valley, a tourist destination, took place while I was in Pakistan.

But neither event had a noticeable effect on the general sense of security and stability where I was in Islamabad or on the road.

The notion that Pakistan is more dangerous than Iraq is absurd.

Until recently suicide bombs, murder, and kidnapping were routine in Iraq.

And there is no way I would do there what I have just done in Pakistan: take a holiday.

Never alone

I hired a car in Islamabad and headed out onto the partially completed M2 motorway that will eventually connect Lahore (near the Indian border) with Peshawar (the last city on the road to the Khyber Pass and Afghanistan).

But motorways are boring, so I left the M2 and re-joined the ancient Grand Trunk Road, which links most of the main towns of northern Pakistan.

For much of the route it is lined with eucalyptus trees, their almost-autumn leaves and silvery bark shining in the clear October sun as I drove along.
Driving in Pakistan is fast and sometimes chaotic, but not competitive.

They even hoot politely. And one great danger at home you hardly ever have to contend with in Pakistan is drunk drivers and people with concentration blurred by hangovers.

My destinations were Chitral, an isolated valley in the far-north-west on the Afghan border and Gilgit, close to China and Tajikistan.

The round-trip was more than 1,200 miles (nearly 2,000km) and included mountain passes almost half as high as Everest.

And although I was driving alone, I was hardly ever on my own.

There is public transport but not a lot. So, people walk long distances along these high stony roads and if a car passes, they hold out a hand hoping for a lift.


One morning, 12-year-old Kashif sat with me for a while.

He had been expecting to walk for more than an hour to the nearest town, to buy a new pair of shoes.

He showed me the pair he was wearing. The right shoe's upper was half split away from the sole.

Kashif spoke almost perfect English, good enough to warn me as we turned a tight bend, "Be careful, uncle, road badly damaged round next corner from earthquake."

Earthquake damage from 2005, still unrepaired.

I spent the night at a hotel next to the old fort at Mastuj, near the snowy Hindu Kush peak Tirich Mir which is 7,690m high (25,200 feet).

The hotel consists of small timber and stone cabins set in a wood of walnut trees and poplars and a plane tree reputed to be 200 years old.

I woke to autumn colours every bit as wondrous as anything I have seen in Kew Gardens or New England.

My next hitch-hiking companion was Mohammed, an English Literature student at Peshawar University.

"So you study Shakespeare?" I asked.


"Yes, and Wordsworth."

And John Donne, I wondered?

"Ah, John Donne," he raptured.

"John Donne... the poetry of love."

I do not know any Donne by heart but when I attempted Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man from As You Like It, Mohammed completed every line as we bumped along the dusty road.

Parts of Pakistan are deeply conservative, devoutly Muslim places, and I was not signalled for lifts by many women.

But there were some.

A mother and grandmother, sitting in the back, their heads covered but not their faces and one-year-old Anis and his father Samir in the front with me.

He protested when I took a photograph of the two women but they did not object and posed happily as they waited for the flash.

When I delivered them to the Gilgit hospital where the little boy had an appointment with a heart specialist, his father was so pleased and grateful he gave me a bear hug, and a massive smile that erased his earlier stern objections to taking a picture.

I gave lifts to more than 20 people, learned how to say "no problem" in Urdu (Koi Batnahi), and had to hold back tears when two children said thank you for their lift and offered me money to help pay for the petrol.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 10 November, 2007 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7090632.stm

Published: 2007/11/12 16:26:32 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Emergency in Pakistan and the general state of affairs

Martial law is nothing new for Pakistan. Since the 1950's, we have had more army rule in the country than civilian. Yet this time there is something scarier and more overwhelming about the sudden move to Emergency rule. Did I hear someone say 'nukes'? Yes, that is the correct answer dear child. Nukes it is. And whosoever happens to be in charge of them. Now the wisdom of restricting nuclear capabilities sinks in as we have time to sit and ponder the consequences of them falling in the wrong hands. Can Amreeka save us Dear Lord?? One of the three A's has to swoop in to help!! Allah seems to be abandoning us, the Army is harassing and killing us, Amreeka? help? please?

Army rule in Pakistan may not be new, but suicide bombings are a very new phenomenon in Pakistan. There was always violence, granted. But not in the form of bearded crazies blowing up hundreds of innocent people with them. It is the scope and the enormity of the havoc these bombs wreak that is frightening. A gun or two in the Frontier never hurt anyone, except the rival tribe perhaps. But such indiscrimate killing is frightening because it can ruin lives entirely disassociated with any politician, any madrassa, any international drug ring. People cheering Benazir Bhutto- children enjoying the parade of the big-shouldered horse-faced lady; poor people selling their wares hoping to make a few extra rupees because of the large turnout; and then those who just want to see this spectacle. Shame on the horse-faced nasal-twang-voiced lady who knew this could happen and decided to put thousands of lives at risk for a measly publicity stunt. And a blight on her House.

Then the free and fair polls set for January 2008 gave a certain general and chief of army some bad days running to the pot. Yes he would step down as general, but no not in the next twenty some years. So he decided to suspend the sham of a constitution, kick out the judiciary and yell "Emergency everybuddy!" Sher aya, sher aya. Now what to do re baba? Condi bibi called to say General bhaiya, not a good move. And surprise oh surprise, bhaiya was in no mood to oblige. There was a lot of killing to do without domestic and international media yelling bloody murder. So not only did general sahib have to unplug all independent media outlets, cut off communication lines and deploy the guardians of our borders with what now seems like a very benevolent enemy (India...did you really not guess?), but he had to arrest about 500 people (Asma Jehangir must have sermoned all the way to jail) to quell any movement against his Godhood. Now what we ask?

Now: Killing in once-peaceful and really so beautiful Swat Valley; Army killing people, people killing army, people killing people.
Army continues to harass and kill Balochi's.
suicide bombings because of horse-faced lady's arrival in Sindh.
Tikka boti parties in Punjab.

One more bomb dropped in Waziristan. Few more children killed. General sahib has land in Turkey, BB has land in...oh she owns half the world, and Nawaz Mian is enjoy the palaces of Saudi and the hoors of the desert. No one hears the anguished cries of the people who lose their houses, their loved ones, their entire lives in the 'accidental' bombings on the frontier. People killing their own. We don't need to wait for the vilayati armageddon. Ours has already begun.

Update on Kite Runner movie

Kite Runner boy star 'not safe':
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7028288.stm

Kite Runner movie fiasco

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6992751.stm

In a country and culture where honor is held in such high regard that lives are lost in keeping it safe, the directors of Kite Runner- a movie based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini- put the lives and honor of one of the young actors and his family in an extremely precarious position.

A little background is necessary before I delve in to the legal and humanitarian issues of it all. The book, for those who have not read it, contains the witnessing of a rape by the protagonist of the book of his servant and friend, by a psycopath. Keeping in mind that Afghanistan has been wrestling with Talebanisation for the past forty odd years, and has only recently been half emptied (read: bombed) of its civilian population in an American quest for 'democracy and modernity' (American style), topics such as sex are still largely taboo. And rape is...well...it is a sexual activity despite the lack of consent. Therefore to write about it with fictional characters is one thing, to picturize it on a child, that too an Afghan child, we can only start to imagine the repercussions.

To make matters worse, the father, Ahmed Jaan, of the young actor, Ahmed Khan Mahmizada, on whom the rape scene is filmed, claims he was never told about the scene, and once picturized was assured by the director that it would be cut from the movie. Ahmed Khan also claims he was unaware of the rape scene when he agreed to be a part of the movie. The producer, Rebecca Yeldham, denies the director promised Ahmed Jaan that the scene would not be filmed or would be cut from the final reel. She also claims that the scene has been filmed in a non-gratuitous and discreet manner, while also maintaining the so-called integrity of the book and making it clear that the incident is clearly sexual.

That brings us the legal problems first. Despite not having a filming background, I do know that everytime a film is made for commercial purposes, a release form has to be signed by those being filmed with knowledge of how the film will be used and what they will be portraying in the movie. If the person being filmed refuses to give their consent, the movie-makers cannot legally release the movie.

Although the BBC news article does not mention release forms, it does raise a lot of questions, for instance, did the actors and their parents know exactly what was going to be filmed? If they did not, and assuming they signed release forms, are those legally enforceable? Also, since the scene is being shot on a minor, his parent's consent is mandatory. In the Yoo Ess of Ay these details would be stringently enforced. In Afghanistan, who cares? take advantage of naivety and ignorance. After all, what's a little rape scene on a 10 year old when he is already undergoing the hardships of living in a country being bombarded by the noble super powers. They can deal with it.

But imagine the hue and cry if this took place here. People would be up in arms about the exploitation of a minor. Oh and if the producers were muslims/arabs/brown/not your typical blue-white-and-blonde American, there would be some more culture bashing.

And what can the Afghan family do? hope that the bbc news article enraged enough people to protest about this? Wait for the movie to come out, only to become outcasts in their community? sue the deep pockets?

While this story will probably fizzle away for us soon, the incidents will and have impacted a child and his family, and is not merely a story for them, but bitter reality. They have yet again been taken advantage of, and their voices will again go unheard unless we join our voices with theirs and make it one voice so loud that it cannot be ignored.

The bbc article gives more details, and I am sure you will find more travesties of justice when you read it. This is a very superfluous view of the issue. Feel free to leave comments, disagreements and corrections

Threads in D.C- don't go there!!!

For anyone who will listen. The lady in Threads on U-street poked me in my eye so badly it had two red spots in it for a week. And she didn't even apologize. The place is dirty, expensive and the workers are unprofessional and rude. So if you need threading done, might as well do it yourself, or you will be left with one eye to give her an evil eye with.

Innocent people are dying in ICE custody

Over the past couple of months, the media has reported four deaths among undocumented workers being held in various detention centers all over the country. The most recent was the death of a pregnant woman at the El Paso Detention Center in Texas. For more on this unfortunate story go to: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Detention_Death.html
It seems as if only White American lives are valuable. While we get to see pictures of hostages taken in Iraq or Afghanistan over and over again until we know their lives and stories and future plans and when they last pee'd, how come we do not get to hear about the lives of people in THIS country who are being held in the most inhumane conditions. While they are promised the due process of law they are being denied even basic medical treatment.

Another incident occured when a man was refused his asthma medication despite repeated appeals by his family to get through to him. He died within half an hour. ICE apologized. But his pictures were not flashed on CNN and FOX. His family wasn't shown and his dreams were not heard. Why?

The hostages that were taken by desperate people in war torn countries were adults who went there with full knowledge of the dangerous situations in those countries. This does not justify or condone any act to harm them ofcourse. But just as a comparison, on the other hand, we have people trying to escape the oppression and problems they face in their countries and are looking for a safe haven, who come here, and are imprisoned sometimes for years in awful conditions. What an irony. Americans should be treated like kings and queens wherever they go, but that same privilege does not apply to others landing on their stolen shores. America can bomb poor innocent people anywhere in the world without being condemned and called terrorists, and one act of robbery can make an entire immigrant race 'murderers', 'rapists' and 'thieves'. What great 'justice', and what more can be expected by the upholders of justice and democracy all over the world.

These immigrants don't have faces in the media. They don't have names. They are numbers. Illegal aliens. The "three million" illegal aliens in our midst that our leaders do not know what to do with. As if it is a vermin for them to erase. And that is exactly how they are being dealt with.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Michael Chertoff, George Bush, everyone needs to understand that being white does not entitle anyone to special privileges. (It condemns them to a life of fake tanning and skin cancer). While the lives of American hostages are precious, the lives of immigrants in this country, whether they are brown, white or blue, are equally precious and need to be safeguarded with the same eagerness.

Operation Endgame

Department of Homeland Security is busy trying to implement a ten year plan, called Operation Endgame, to apprehend and deport all undocumented aliens by 2012. In essence, they have every right to deport undocumented aliens, however not at the cost of denying due process rights (read: human rights) to them and their children. People from immigrant communities (men, women, children, old people) are being rounded up, and this isn't just the South Americans. We're talking all 'foreign looking' people here.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is the agency set up to implement immigration law, is raiding workplaces, homes, even stopping people on streets to check their immigration status. In such a mass movement of arresting and deporting people, human rights are bound to be trampled upon, and they already have been. Does this mean if I have fair skin and light hair I will not be bothered by ICE? Granted the system always had a (very slight) bias against non-whites. But it has not been this blatant since the Civil Rights Movement and Brown v. Board of Education. Discrimination in any form is unacceptable, but when it is flaunted under the banner of law, even the law seems repulsive, and this undermines the whole system of justice.

Discrimination against people of color cannot be tolerated. Programs by ICE such as the 287(g) program which gives local and state police the power to stop people and check their immigration status are a way for people to make (more) judgments based on skin color. It is time everyone, irrespective of nationality, religion and race got together to protest these travesties of justice.

The first step is to gain knowledge about what is going on with the law- whether it is directly 'related' to you or not.At the end of the day, we are all co-existing and interdependent. By distancing ourselves from 'others' we are allowing the justice system to deteriorate, and who knows when that is going to come and bite us.

The second step is to spread knowledge and make our voices heard so anti-immigration groups and so-called nativists know that we are also loud and know our ish.
Only by helping others can we help ourselves.

Visit the FIRM website (http://fairimmigration.org) for more information.

Canada lifts ban on "Singh" and "Kaur"...

They're moving on to "Mohammad" and "Khan"...

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008020055
and
http://www.theobserver.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=633080&catname=Editorial&classif=

For the past many many many years Canada has been artistically implementing a lovely form of racial discrimination- by asking thousands of Sikh applicants to change their last names since Singh and Kaur are too "common". An interesting way to keep brown people away. I guess Canada finally caught up with the bhangra takeover, because the law has been rescinded. Let the punjabi domination begin!

Pakistan feels the Big Love...

I'm honored...

http://www.pal-c.org/U.S.HailsReinstatementofTopPakistaniJudge.html

Pakistan and Musharraf's legal turmoil

While security forces knocked militants dead in Islambad, the Supreme Court of Pakistan reinstated the now-canonized Saint Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar to his job. A piece of good news for our troubled land of the pure. Yet, as America threatens to weed out Bin Laden from the North, Pakistani liberals crib about the exceeding militarization of the country, and right wing idiots yell distorted slogans of their so-called jihad at Musharraf's 'modernist' government, those of us on the fringes wonder- who will wipe Mushy's tears now? Will he have to make peace with the Islamic faction, or the club-hopping-sexy-lady-politician types? (yes, we have a few of those). Is there a middle road in this quagmire?

Legally, strictly legally with no bottles of smuggled alcohol involved, Musharraf could not have been anything but 'content' with the Supreme Court's decision to reinstate Saint Iftikhar. To be otherwise would have been political suicide for him. Without outrightly overturning our tattered constitution, Musharraf could not have maligned the Court decision. And who really wants more anti-government rallies by those upholders of the Rule of Law?

On the other hand, the government was literally forced to open the notorious "red mosque" this week. By painting it lemon yellow they supposedly averted a crisis. Afterall only 20 odd people died in the most recent bomb blast in the red mosque vicinity. Why pander to these so called "Islamic" whacko's? Do they even know the essence of the religion? Who gives them a right to enforce their brand of Islam? I certainly haven't. Apparently the government took the liberty of doing that on my behalf through its mealy mouthed rhetoric. To oppose them would again be political suicide. But I frankly believe that is one suicide which would be justified.

Let me make my predictions- Pakistan will be bombed by its savior (make a wild guess who that might be)with a few random bombs being dropped outside of the 'bin laden territory' by 'mistake' - the North West Frontier Province will increasingly become disillusioned with the idea of being part of Pakistan and will start their independence movement, Balochi's being neglected especially after our government realized the recent flooding and its victims were not an international media attention grabber, will start waging war outside of Baluchistan, Punjabi's will keep eating tikka boti's at food street and pretending that the world revolves within the confines of punjab, while Sindhi's...well those Sindhi's never identified with Pakistan anyways, right Lahore? Phew! Where does that leave us? No where I'm afraid. And we wanted Kashmir??

Oh well, just food for thought. Good night and sweet dreams.