My Country’s Parliament Isn’t Your Personal Plaything
If I remember correctly, it was in the fifth grade that my school organized an excursion to a ceramic factory for our entire class. The factory belonged to a classmate’s father and we were treated as VIPs by all the employees for we were guests of the owner. The memory of that trip came flooding back to me as I watched President Zardari deliver a speech to the parliament. Seated amongst the guests was the President's son, flanked by a group of his gora teenaged friends.
(skip to 0:38)
Is our Parliament now a more comfortable 'third world experience' excursion?
Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to invite more deserving and accomplished individuals to hear this important address?
Perhaps I'm overreacting, but this just didn't seem right to me.
P.S.
Is Zarari officially trying to replace Jinnah with Benazir? This is the latest in a series of appearances by the President where BB’s portrait has been prominently displayed whereas the Quaid’s portrait is nowhere to be found.
[Correction: An earlier version of this post wrongly stated that this was Pres. Zardari's first speech to Parliament. Reader MZ alerted us that this was not the case, the President first spoke to the Parliament on 20-09-08.]
(skip to 0:38)
Is our Parliament now a more comfortable 'third world experience' excursion?
Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to invite more deserving and accomplished individuals to hear this important address?
Perhaps I'm overreacting, but this just didn't seem right to me.
P.S.
Is Zarari officially trying to replace Jinnah with Benazir? This is the latest in a series of appearances by the President where BB’s portrait has been prominently displayed whereas the Quaid’s portrait is nowhere to be found.
[Correction: An earlier version of this post wrongly stated that this was Pres. Zardari's first speech to Parliament. Reader MZ alerted us that this was not the case, the President first spoke to the Parliament on 20-09-08.]
Labels:
Minority Reports,
Pakistan
23 comments:
you arent overreacting...it IS disturbing.
i also dont understand why they are all dressed in identical outfits...its not a dholki or a festive occasion.
on another random zardari-bilalwal note, i heard a rumour that bilawal had asked for an allowance from the government to support his college election campaign...and this wasnt a small sum.
hopefully its a stupid rumour, because if its not, the buzzing in my head that accompanies all zardari-isms will get louder.
Dude I also found that giant portrait thing to be annoying as hell.
I mean its not like Hillary works with a giant portrait of Bill in the background. What is the justification for having BB up there? Shes not a fucking founder of the nation for Gods sake.
Khair though, its pretty obvious that the only reason her portrait is up there is to entrench that cult of personality and family thats currently keeping him at the head of the PPP. I remember a speech of AZ's where there was this trio of portraits, a massive one of ZAB, a big-medium of BB, and a little one of Bilawal Bhutto. And then Zardari himself, in the flesh behind the desk, reading off the teleprompter, just in case someone missed the links evidencing his inheritance.
Thank you for posting this. I just came across it on the television and am distured to say the least :|.
It's the parliment...not his fucking drawing room.
And you're right about the Benazir replacing Jinnah thing. On my recent visit to Lahore, it was hard to remain indifferent to Benazirs presence ( LOL ); very big brotherish :|
Good post AKS. The BB love is getting a little Orwellian, as Nabil alluded to.
psst, the 0:56 mark as he is highlighting benazir's assasination:
''this was before the government was framed (insert: oops, sh-t) er, formed.''
ok, maybe only i found that bit funny.
those kids next to bilawal don't look very gora to me? but if they are then it would be nice were the politicians of pakistan a little less easy and a little more exclusive. this seems a joke.
i don't know what it is about benazir and her photos, i know a family who were pretty close with her when she was alive and even then their house was saturated with her pictures and they weren't the only ones.
i even wish the founder of pakstan's photos would be used more sparingly - nevermind bb. it's all in bad taste.
then again, in england; jade goody's face is plastered all over the place, at least bb was the more attractive of the two.
aks you are definitely not overreacting.
i would love to go to oxford and just do something to that kid and the people who actually befriend him.
and if the fact that asif zardari is the president of a country doesn't affirm just how reduced and how much of a joke "politics" has become in this world, then i don't know what else it'll take for that affirmation.
The sad thing is it works. A lot of PPP voters have this cultish following of the Bhuttos. Doesnt make them too different from jiyalas of other parties. Doesn't make me want to slap the shit out of Bilawal any less.
Well, i always thought that you guys show more than you know. Today, i found out that i was correctl NB, this is not zardari's first speech to the parliment. He addressed the Joint session of parliment just few months ago in september, the same day of marriot blast. Do your homework before writing.
@ MZ
NB didn't post this, I did. Just a simple "you guys got it wrong" would have sufficed, but thank you anyway. I'll make the changes.
Two things in this video that are odd:
1. Zardari addressing the Parliament in English. I remember as a child watching national addresses telecast on PTV by the PM speaking in Urdu.
2. Bilawal looking straight ahead like a zombie. The other two kids are looking to his left, which probably indicates where Zardari is standing. I get fidgety during long lectures so I understand shifting around but this is strange.
He's probably thinking about his favorite episode of Buffy, and spaced out for a bit.
You know he took BB's picture with him to UN!
So the Pakistani parliament is just his playground, why not have her picture there?
PS: She's also doing the Hitler salute. Just one more step towards Nazism...
ummm, I think Bilwal's gora friends are modeling for Amir Adnan, only that can justify the red (shahrukh khan) dupatta.
As for the parliament being the playground, i personally think the whole bloody country is his playground. Pakistanis should not think of themselves as citizens, we are all subjects of the kingdom of Bhuttoland.
This shows the hypocrisy of those who worked for the restoration of democracy. Come to think of it, I don't see democracy within PPP itself. The only reason Zardari is heading the PPP is because he banged ZAB's daughter and fathered Bilawal.
Our parliament is has become a personal fief of the Bhutto family.
oh come on at least they're trying to fit in with they're shalwar kameez and duppatas. (JK)
So they came, now what? Let them enjoy being a friend of Pakistan's presidents son. I mean how long is this party going to last?
BB will never and can never replace Mmuhammad Ali Jinah.
Zardari, in first address to the nation said how he wants to get rid of the 58 2B since its a power used by dictators. Now, after having placed the 58 2B he said almost the same thing again in this address... however left the dictator thing out.
Seriously, why does Zardari even try?
in case you guys havent heard:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/03/30/world/AP-AS-Pakistan.html?_r=2&hp
you can watch the live geo news stream here:
http://www.rizwanashraf.com/2007/11/14/watch-geo-tv-online/
in my school, there was a student from an african country, i think niger, who had made it purely through a pawwa from his dad - the ruler of the country who had recently come to power through a coup after putting his brother (i think) under house arrest. the next year, that student's brother was also the representative from niger, even though the selection and admission process was supposed to be really strenous and meritocratic. those two brothers also had an apartment to themselves located on the fucking champs elysees.
i used to laugh at their crackpot african country back then. 17 year old karachi khatmal has officially been bitchslapped by the goras on their feild trip to the parliament.
Hey - your country's parliament is certainly not a plaything and my parliament too was not a shooting range practice for your beloved brethren from the land of the pure...
Awesome that you and your people are getting what is richly deserved..thank Allah..er I mean Jesus/Ram/Buddha...
@ the guy above
Most.Bullshit.Correlation.Ever
However, as fiverupees has been mentioned in the dossier as the planner and executor of all nefarious paki terror plots, i suppose you have your valid reasons...
I don't find any reason why AZ chose to speak in English (especially when he is clearly not good at it).
The PPP website says Asif Zardari went to Karachi Grammar School. Can't believe it.
mush was the first to start off the whole addressing the people in engraizi, he used to pretty artfully flit between urdu and english depending on what he was communicating. i.e. if he lying through his teeth he'd do so in english and if he was in a happier mood he's use urdu to spread some love to the non-english mugs.
glad to see this new custom is being honoured so by the new president.
btw, who has had a baby girl? congratulations!!
non-english speaking* mugs.
I think Bilawal is being forced on to the national consciences as next in line for the throne of King of the Monarchy that is Pakistan. As if he was some sort of British prince. The PPP government doesn’t tire of putting up banners with his face plastered on them all over the place. As if the country owes him something for the ‘great martyrdom and sacrifice’ of his family.
The injustice of it all makes want to inflict some serious physical damage on him. The guy is as connected to this country as his gora friends are. He is definitely not one of the people and therefore not capable to be a leader. In fact, I think he is not different from the feudal spawn who go around cities like Karachi and Lahore with their bodyguards on display and shove their sense of entitlement in everyone’s face.
And yeah, whats with Benazir’s face adorning the wall behind Zardari every time he makes a speech. To try to replace the great Quaid with people like ZAB and Benazir who’s legacy to this country is corruption, extra judicial killings, breaking the country in half and general megalomania is befitting only to a thief like Zardari. I hope the Bhutto clan is somehow neutralized from Pakistani politics so that we can have leaders from the people who lead for the people.
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