PAKISTAN - DIRE STATE OF AFFAIRS

Sunday, 22 September 2019

Pakistan's Kashmir obsession: unhealthy and unrealistic?

As the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrives in New York for the latest session of the United Nations General Assembly it's necessary for Pakistanis to ask exactly what the country can do about Indian Kashmir. 

Muzaffarabad is the largest city and capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. It is located near the confluence of the Jhelum and Neelum Rivers and is a four hour drive from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. (Source: Wikipedia: Obaid 747) 

The country's economic managers are walking around with a begging bowl because the country cannot pay its bills leave alone spend money on national development. The Pakistan Banao (Bachao?) Certificates launched with great fanfare early in Khan's term and designed to raise Pakistan's foreign currency reserves have done little to strengthen reserves.

The economy is in the midst of a serious downturn with no recovery in sight for at least the coming 18-24 months. Large scale manufacturing is shrinking while small and medium sized enterprises labor under the effects of increased taxation, a sharp drop in the value of the Rupee and an emasculated consumer struggling to make ends meet while losing more discretionary income with each passing day given an official inflation rate above thirteen percent.

The country is running out of water but has no money to build dams. Despite arm twisting and 'forced donations' (e.g. via each Pakistan Railways ticket sold) the Supreme Court's Dam Fund is nowhere near numbers required to seriously assist with the urgent building of dams across the country. Indeed, the much hyped Dam Fund has become a hazy memory for most and an embarrassing one for those promoting crowdfunding as an alternate means to pay for massive national infrastructural projects. 

The electricity situation is no better. Despite suffering shortages and brownouts for the last several decades, Pakistan has been unable to fix its electricity load shedding problem until today. Much of the country suffers hours without electricity daily in both Winter and Summer months. Even when electricity is available it is not stable with voltage fluctuations playing havoc with machinery; a disincentive for manufacturing concerns requiring stable, uninterrupted electricity for normal operations.

The country has no proper waste management systems. Without a drastic betterment in urban sanitation levels improvements in preventive healthcare will remain wanting. (Picking up litter from urban areas and dumping it on the outskirts of cities so it is out of sight does not constitute proper waste management.) It's not surprising Pakistan is one of the only countries where polio still afflicts children. 

The air quality in Pakistan's cities is rapidly deteriorating due to pollution. Indeed, Lahore is blanketed by haze virtually on a daily basis with air quality moving into the healthy range an exception to the daily norm. Islamabad and Karachi are not far behind. This is the air Pakistan's infants breathe daily – and there is no shortage of infants given the country's fertility rate.

Pakistan cannot provide adequate food, housing, education or medical care to the majority of Pakistanis. In many households, animals are more precious than women, who have few effective social or economic freedoms. All these problems are compounded by Pakistan's unbridled population growth with its population increasing exponentially every few decades.

So as PM Khan travels back to Pakistan in a few days on on a borrowed Saudi luxury jet he may wish to ask himself what's more important for Pakistan's two hundred million plus citizens: ratcheting up Kashmir hysteria a few more notches or implementing a national development agenda on a war footing? 

Imran is a Singapore based Tour Guide with a special interest in arts and history. Imran has lived and worked in several countries during his career as an international banker. He enjoys traveling, especially by train, as a way to feed his curiosity about the world and nurture his interest in photography. He is available on twitter (@grandmoofti); Instagram(@imranahmedsg) and can be contacted at imran.ahmed.sg@gmail.com.

(PAKISTAN CONNECTION - MY WIFE'S GRANDFATHER WAS A KHAN. I HAVE BEEN TO PAKISTAN TWICE YEARS AGO).

THE MALAYSIAN JEW TO ROT

Netanyahu facing corruption charges, so Al-Jib.



May you rot in Bamboo River. 



al-Jib will get Jho Lo to company him.


(pics: tukar tiub)

GIRLCOTT NOT BOYCOTT

If there is boy there must be girl. God's creation of all if not most living things in pairs, male and female for purposes of procreation.

There are corrupt Malays especially of Umno and Pas who are desperate to regain their former easy if not luxurious lifestyles under the previous government. The heyday of the culture of corruption is over. And those found to be corrupt will face jail terms. These people are the real desperadoes and will do whatever they could to derail justice. They are back to their old game using religion and race issues, real, false or misleading to garner support of the ignorants or those with self interests, in order to save their skin or neck, more so now. So much so it has reached a point to them let the devil take the hindmost.

The hullaballoo the desperadoes trying to promote in the name of Malay but more of Umno-Pas unity to boycott non-Muslim products is a devisive strategy. Those who fall in the trap do not have their feet firmly on the ground. The reality is that the non-Muslims especially the Chinese control the economy meaning that all businesses from A to Z of anything you name it in the country are theirs. Even belacan they manufacture and control the market. What more of home, small, medium, and heavy industries for local and export markets. The moment you open your big mouth to boycott they can easily without a fuss counter by non-supplying of goods and materials to Malay businesses. Price of things will go up and the people, mainly Malays who are basically consumers will get the short end of the stick.

This race and religion thing is played even in government institutions.  It reminds me when I was in MARDI, an ambitious (director) in trying to reach the top (DG) fast would use such a strategy. His so called research and English was below the mark to qualify for DG post. That mark the real beginning of the fall of MARDI. I observed quite similar happenings in CRAUN Research and UPM Bintulu - games people play to cover inferiority complex and shenanigans.

       

DEDIKASI - AKU DAN SEKOLAH

ya, Tuhan ku
aku syukur
lahir aku di kampong
bapak minang kahwin cina

sekolah atap
2 batu jalan kaki
ahmad tahi lalat dipipi
cikgu pertama darjah 1
rabu bawa tahi ayam
2 tempurong baja sayur

kau pergi sekolah omputih
aku nak sekolah agama, abah
cikgu ibrahim panggil aku cantik
aku marah
aku syok norehan, normah
ms chia chongsam sexy
belah nampak paha kiri kanan
ms chapman pinggang ramping
cikgu zainab genit

masuk asrama
aku pendiam
lebai, bookworm disindir 
emak jahit seluar dalam biru
aku budak kampong
telinga menanah
aku gelisah runsing sedih
jangan selam dalam air, abah kata

form VI di seremban
syed abu bakar guru asrama
aku parah sains maths
gagal
masuk kolej serdang, abang kata

dr harnam singh ent
terima kasih
telinga aku pulih 


terima kasih semua guru2
segala tunjuk ajar
aku hutang budi 
tak terbayar
hanya ALLAH ku serahkan 

AKU MERDEKA TROUBODOUR BAJAU

September 2006, selepas melawat FELDA Sahabat, Lahad Datu atas urusan resmi aku sempat ke Semporna, pantai timur Sabah.

Pekan Semporna dipersisiran laut.  Kelihatan bumbung masjid di belakang pasar (bumbung berbentuk terendak). Perahu2 pengangkutan dan nelayan berlabuh. 

Di stesyen bas dan teksi van aku berbual dengan troubodour Bajau. "Abang, nama saya Merdeka. Kalau tak percaya tengok IC." katanya. Ku terhibur dengan Merdeka - petikan gitarnya sambil menyanyi. Ini antara kenangan manis di Semporna.

Orang Bajau dan laut tidak terpisah. Laut merupakan tempat pencarian hidup - ikan, mutiara, agar laut. Dulunya mereka meredah laut dari pulau ke pulau melanun bila ada peluang. Perkampungan mereka selesa  di gigi laut. Keadaan rumah menampakan tahap kemiskinan terabai. 

Malaysia merdeka hanya di Kuala Lumpur?

KELINGKIAK MERAYAP DAN CENDAWAN BUSUT

Gulai cendawan busut masak pedas (cili api) adalah antara masakan popular di alam Minangkabau, N. Sembilan. 

Pada musim hujan kerap cendawan itu muncul dekat busut anai2. Soldadu anai2 garang mengigit dan dipanggil kelingkiak. Badanya berwarna hitam sebab itu orang Minang panggil dia keling! 

Sekarang jarang2  jumpa cendawan busut di kampung. Busut dan anai2 sudah berkurangan agaknya.

Pernah membeli cendawan busut dijual tepi jalan belakang hospital Kajang, RM20/kg. Katanya cendawan dari Beranang.

Masakan cendawan peringkat button (atas) lebih sedap serta rangup daripada yang payungnya sudah kembang (kiri).

Kelingkiak mengikut istilah Minang ialah soldadau anai2, badanya lebih besar dan garang menggigit (menyepit). Bila hujan lebat sebelah senja atau malam soldadu2 ini keluar. Ia petanda cendawan busut akan tumbuh. 

Pada hemahnya spora cendawan melekat pada kaki dan badan anai2  tersimpan dalam busut.  Bila kelingkiak merayap keluar dari lubang busut spora secara tidak langsung ditabur. Spora akan tumbuh menjadi cendawan. 

KERIS UMNO MAKAN TUAN

LEMBAGA Disiplin Umno sedang menjalankan siasatan keatas bekas naib presiden parti itu Hishammuddin Hussein atas aduan salah laku.

Pengerusi Lembaga itu Mohamed Apandi Ali yang mengesahkan siasatan tersebut berkata perincian mengenainya akan dimaklumkan apabila siasatan selesai.

Siasatan itu dikaitkan dengan pertemuan Hishammuddin dengan Perdana Menteri Dr Mahathir Mohamad pada Julai.

(petikan Tukar Tiub)