Links For Sunday
While I slowly extricate myself from the deep abyss of non-laptop, non-Ipod ownership (God, I fucking hate Hyde Park), I provide you, loyal readers, with stuff to read this Sunday.
Chauhdry Shujaat plays hard to get with Shaukat Aziz, and refuses to meet him for dinner in London. I also love how the writer calls Shujaat the "former political godfather of Pakistani politics". I guess I must have been in another space-time continuum when that happened. Chaudhry Shujaat was powerful, sure, but political godfather? Come on.
Blah blah Maureen Dowd blah blah Hillary blah Obama blah blah funny blah as blah blah always blah blah none of the NYT columnists blah blah actually blah agree with their own blah blah editorial staff blah blah who endorsed Hillary blah blah except for Krugman blah blah who no one listens to anyway blah blah.
Husain Haqqani writes that urban middle and upper class Pakistanis are oblivious to mainstream politicians' popularity. He argues that by ignoring their popularity with the lower rungs of society, and focusing only on what they (the urban middle and upper class) get out of democracy, they divest from the political process to the peril of the state, leaving space for, and actively encouraging, military takeovers. My only point would be that the military is, for all intents and purposes, a political party in Pakistan. It relies on patronage networks (like other political parties in democracies), an almost all-weather constituency (the aforementioned middle and upper class), it adopts political parties' rhetoric ("only we can save the country"), and furnishes the political agenda of the state. That's a political party to me. So one can argue that the urban middle and upper classes aren't divested from the political process, but in fact are heavily invested in it. It's just that they're invested in a highly non-traditional political party.
Aitzaz Ahsan enjoys about 48 hours of freedom.
Why Jay Leno can withstand the writers strike better than David Letterman.
Just an outstanding take on the whole Australia-India imbroglio. If you're going to read one item on that affair, make it this one.
Bush congratulates Sarkozy on his wedding. I'm sure he was not at all jealous during that conversation. Bush, after all, is married to her. Sarkozy, on the other hand, is now happily married to her.
Speaking of marriage, don't you love being from a country where men are sometimes forced into marrying their five year-old cousins? Pakistan: Where All The Love That Exists Is Inappropriate.
I guess the following two sentences adequately sum up the foreign policy era of Bush II: "By contrast, Bush's strategies neither succeeded nor endured—not even through the two terms of his presidency—because they did not fit the realities of his era. They were based not on a grasp of technology, history, or foreign cultures but rather on fantasy, faith, and a willful indifference toward those affected by their consequences."
And now, back to moping.
Chauhdry Shujaat plays hard to get with Shaukat Aziz, and refuses to meet him for dinner in London. I also love how the writer calls Shujaat the "former political godfather of Pakistani politics". I guess I must have been in another space-time continuum when that happened. Chaudhry Shujaat was powerful, sure, but political godfather? Come on.
Blah blah Maureen Dowd blah blah Hillary blah Obama blah blah funny blah as blah blah always blah blah none of the NYT columnists blah blah actually blah agree with their own blah blah editorial staff blah blah who endorsed Hillary blah blah except for Krugman blah blah who no one listens to anyway blah blah.
Husain Haqqani writes that urban middle and upper class Pakistanis are oblivious to mainstream politicians' popularity. He argues that by ignoring their popularity with the lower rungs of society, and focusing only on what they (the urban middle and upper class) get out of democracy, they divest from the political process to the peril of the state, leaving space for, and actively encouraging, military takeovers. My only point would be that the military is, for all intents and purposes, a political party in Pakistan. It relies on patronage networks (like other political parties in democracies), an almost all-weather constituency (the aforementioned middle and upper class), it adopts political parties' rhetoric ("only we can save the country"), and furnishes the political agenda of the state. That's a political party to me. So one can argue that the urban middle and upper classes aren't divested from the political process, but in fact are heavily invested in it. It's just that they're invested in a highly non-traditional political party.
Aitzaz Ahsan enjoys about 48 hours of freedom.
Why Jay Leno can withstand the writers strike better than David Letterman.
Just an outstanding take on the whole Australia-India imbroglio. If you're going to read one item on that affair, make it this one.
Bush congratulates Sarkozy on his wedding. I'm sure he was not at all jealous during that conversation. Bush, after all, is married to her. Sarkozy, on the other hand, is now happily married to her.
Speaking of marriage, don't you love being from a country where men are sometimes forced into marrying their five year-old cousins? Pakistan: Where All The Love That Exists Is Inappropriate.
I guess the following two sentences adequately sum up the foreign policy era of Bush II: "By contrast, Bush's strategies neither succeeded nor endured—not even through the two terms of his presidency—because they did not fit the realities of his era. They were based not on a grasp of technology, history, or foreign cultures but rather on fantasy, faith, and a willful indifference toward those affected by their consequences."
And now, back to moping.
Labels:
Miscellaneous
5 comments:
Husain Haqqani Husain Haqqani Husain Haqqani.... I am sick of reading that name. I dont know what you think of his political views - my problems are with his personal side. He has been hounding my girlfriend - calling her, sms'ng her, coaxing her to go with him to casinos and other places - and I am very upset. Why cant he leave other people's women alone and stick to his own. I guess that is why he is already on his third wife....
hey hey hey just a second... hold on.... This blog is to discuss serious issues about what is happening in Pakistan and not to cast aspersions on someone's character. Why do we feel that just because someone is in politics he is fair game?
Where is the moderator of this blog - I would like to lodge a complaint!
Not fair for someone anonymous to fire a vulgar shot like this against a well known person without evidence...and for the moderator to let such nonsense be put on.
If it is a real problem and you are a real man, why make anonymous posts on a personal problem.
Typical of nobodies to attack somebody with BS.
I can also make a post and say Barack Obama is sending SMSes to my wife and inviting her to dinner and movies but everyone would rightly wonder when does he have the time and who the hell am I and is my wife Marilyn Monroe that Barack has to do that. Ha Ha
Amusing but looks like this character, Haqqani, goes after the girlfriends of everyone he can lay his hands upon.... My girlfriend too keeps getting flowers on Valentine's Day, on her birthday, on New Year's and he takes her to expensive hotels for drinks....
Can someone pls tell him to keep away from my girlfriend
And in case anyone wants to know who I am - especially Haqqani - tell him my girlfriend is the person he meets at a certain hotel in Boston...
this is quite funny. on a post close to two weeks old, well down from the front page, we get 4 fairly bizarre comments within the space of 70 minutes. and (gulp) the IP addresses from which we received them (yes, we get them all) seem to be quite similar. methinks someone random has way too much time.
whether you're one person or two, anonymous, please take your immature nonsense elsewhere. the only people allowed to be immature on this blog are the contributors.
thank you.
Post a Comment