Micheal Jackson, Iconic Pop Singer, His Life An Epic Drama! Death Reveals All!

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The dramatic death of Micheal Jackson epitomises the fragility of life, human existence, fraility of the human bieng to fight against the demons of destruction such as child abuse,drugs and search for love. The pain of Micheal Jackson's soul ,if stemmed from abuse in childhood(the doctor's in abuse case in his trial said his development had arrested at 10 years of age ), very fast ,demanding ,materialistic life, which started at 9 years of age was very real for him all his life. As is evident from Deepak Chopra interview on Msnbc which I have posted, he was clearly unable to find help on his own as so often happens in children who are left to fend for themselves. Ironically as is evident from drug use in slum area poor children and street children in Pakistan this is the case.
He was left as as a singer to achieve on his own.He had no real support, help or real love in his life. As Deepak Chopra says he would stop seeing him for weeks whenever Deepak asked him or tried to discuss the reason for taking so much pain killer medicines or tried to help. This is typical avoidance behaviour which becomes a habit with addicts. Micheal Jackson had a musical genius inside his body and to reach out and connect he used music. he was endlessly talented in his form of entertainment, maybe the only one at the crossroads of poular music at the juncture of musical change and appealed to an audience young and old,modern and conventional. He brought a simple recorded video to the epic level of a star though solo studded opera performance. His "thriller" is a representative of his ultimate mastery of entertainment.

Sadly, his life is a picture of the false values and plasticity and fakeness of materialism and so called modern living. His child abuse allegations, Deepak Chopra's revelations that he himself may have been abused, his continuous push as in Western society to maintain status no matter at what cost( remember Nicole?),his complete failure to find peace and health( his vitiligo,heart pain, plastic surgery obsessions are the symbols) are there for every one to see. Amazingly when he was alive no one really brought any real life issues to the fore. This reflects the fakenes of our most modern ,materialistic and especially to blame now Western society. The journalistic and media fakeness is so complex a phenonmenon that the real issues especially facing celebrities are never addressed. The celebrities become like barbies and their lives, soap operas in episodes. No complete picture, no real life compassion.
In real life we need to stop see and think. In real life we need to see, feel and connect. We may find solace in helping .Some poor children, some lost soul!

Drug Abuse In Pakistan...Challenges and Solutions.

Today was a day to commemorate the evil of drug abuse in the world. Ironically Micheal Jackson, (http://www.msnbc.com / )an iconic singer for youth died today probably due to overdose of the pain killers medication he was taking on prescription. (See prescription drug abuse on http://www.webmd.com ).Micheal Jackson ruled the hearts of teenagers and ironically at 50 he died a death the reason for which so many parents dread and so many youth suffer. In Pakistan the statistics of all drug use, abuse, substance abuse are unknown. The UNO gives some figures based on some incomplete data provided by government structures but all is unreliable. The facts are such that;
As I used to drive down Hazara and often, Islamabad -Peshawar highway (in 1990) , I would see young people sitting in remote areas outside their villages using drugs. The city of Karachi is thriving in areas and places where drugs are openly sold, addicts live and die in these areas. The police does neither control supply of drugs nor face the mafia. In affluent areas the supply is also free by vendors in small shops and cycle riding cheap goods sellers and near the Seaview , Karachi pretending to be camera operators and chai wallas.
When I was a child my mother then the member of Karachi Divisional Council, education committee often fought and got a few school vendors especially in Lyari areas , which the administration removed for temporary times. They would inevitably return. This was some 40 years ago. After Zia ul Haq regime and Afghan war, this menace has come out of Lyari and is all over Karachi and Pakistan.
The various NGO's are mostly working with adults and a few with street children . Some are doing a fine job albiet a miniscule one while others who are working with HIV AIDs are making a lot of money.The amount of job at hand is enormous whereas the capacity is miniscule.
As was bieng debated on media what are the causes of drug use in youth, they are the same all over the world.
Poverty, lack of parental attention, stress, anxiety, depression, peer pressure,easy access to drugs, satisfaction,sense of achievement all count.In places likse USA drug use is decreasing due to interventions both at the state level and at the societal level. In Pakistan this problem is increasing because of the following factors;
Close proximity of areas of production(poppy in Afghanistan)
Smuggling and illegal drug trade into Pakistan.
Pakistan is inthe route of world drug trade(poppy and it's derivatives )
Poverty in Pakistan.
Corruption and lack of state control in narcotics.
Lack of control on sale of drugs(both prescription and over the counter)
Children are often sent to the quacks/doctors/chemists to fetch medicine(jake dawai le ao meaning go get medicine)(not even qualified as most chemist shops are run by non chemist although a legal clause and binding is there).
Lack of education and easy social access to drug dealers and providers.
Males especially of illiterate , slum areas are least likely to be governed or asked about their daily behaviuor.
Many children in slum area are going to school and in the process take drugs.
Many poor children have to start work early( in age) and are away from home for a long period of daily routine and are unsupervised when they are returning from work.
Often these children are hungry for normal food and bieng children are vulnerable to influences and friendship induced influence.
Youth of relatively affluent areas especially from landed or politically powerful families is encouraged as a sign of affluence to smoke and substance abuse(including alcohol, heroin and cocaine).
Lack of awareness of drug abuse amongst middle class and upper middle class parents.

The following actions are urgently needed to fight this menace;
The anti narcotic strategy has to be revisited and its force prepared almost like an army.
The smuggling routes and it's entry into cities has to be blocked.
The police has to be taken to task on this corruption. Some new accountability laws have to be made and implemented.
The supply line has to be broken. Very tough measures should be taken by the government. I think they should catch a few big fish and make them an example.
The government should launch massive awareness campaigns in all schools including private schools. Drug abuse education should be made a part of curriculum.
The government should dedicate helplines for youth and parents with information and diversion to rehabilitation centers or hospitals. There should be dedicated drug rehabilitation centers in all major cities in tertiary care hospitals.This can be done like in Jinnah hospital in Karachi.
Public awareness campaigns should be run every day on television and radio.
Stars including of music and cricket should volunteer for fighting this menace.
All internet and mobile companies should give some free messages everyday.

If we seriuosly get down to fight against drugs then ther is no way the drug mafia can eat our children away.
We must avoid this attitude which I noticed in most government functionaries and even the UNO representative, of just doing a fixed job,making his salary money and letting the monster grow.
We must urge and motivate the youth itself to fight this menace as a jihad and not let it strike in the first place.
I was so touched by the two boys,one 18 and the other 20 who came on CNBC -Pakistan Awam Ki Awaz with Nadia Naqi and said that when we can fight it inspite of poverty, illiteracy, no help and even after contracting a disease as lethal as HIV-AID. These guys are the real icons , the real hope for Pakistan in our fight against DRUGS!

Sarkozy's Burka Blaspheme,Oh these French Men, English Men!

Mr Stuart Jefferies writes about the non- Hegelian views of Mr. Sarkozy (http://DAWN.com) pg 10 world news.Another human rights activist ,surprisingly English appeared on tv interview also thought that his statement was infringemnet on personal freedom and did nothing to help the human and particularly women's rights in France. Mr. Mark Parton,(http://partonwords.blogspot.com ) a famous radio -journalist and blogger from Canberra, Australia also took my views last week on the burka issue. This issue ironically appears to be the vanguard now in adressing secularism,muslim societies, freedom of expression and the plight of the muslim women in the world.
Mr Jeffries defends the Hegelian view that reason alone defines personal freedom and not just societal conditioning and implies it in the context of what Mr. Sarkozy said.He said that"We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life,deprived of identity" and "the burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience""It will not be welcome on the territory of France".He says that the French president is treading on the path of destroying right to choose in matters of freedom of expression , in this case, outer garment, Burka.The other English human rights worker said that in his experience such edicts did not help the victims and did nothing to improve human, particularly women's rights situations.
I believe and here comes the blasphemous words from muslim, Pakistani woman that Mr Sarkozy is Right in his thoughts but maybe the correct words are not chosen and perhaps the timing of such a staement reeks of political advantage gaining.As I answered to the radio journalist, Mr. Parton that the edict of appearing modestly in public in Islam, two ayats or verses in the Koran,to be exact came in the context of the conduct of muslim women in Mecca in those times.Both these verses exhort women to cover the heads and pull up the edge of the head cover slightly over the face so that she maybe distinguished as a muslim woman different from other non-muslims. This is done by thousands of muslim women as hijab.In those days there was a tradition that there were women slaves by arab men(non-muslim), who made them do prostitution and earn money. These slave women were publically taken as un- chastised and one way of distinguishing from them in public was the order of the hijab.The other edict is regarding taking the scarf like (Dopatta, in the subcontinent) cloth in front to cover the breasts in order to appear modest. This is not in context of public appearance but is practiced by muslim women in India, Pakistan and many other countries.When Pakistan came into bieng, the burka was taken by a few immigrant women from India and the rest as in Punjab, Baluchistan, Sindh were only wearing dopatta, the long scarf. The tradition of the face covering burka started much later on , more so after the Ziaul Haq so called Islamisation campaign, hudood ordinances, Afghan Jihad, all thanks to the tune of the fiddle of the so called liberal Americans. ( I would love Mr Jeffrey's comments on Zia ul Haq's views on Hegel and the at that time US administrations' views on that.)
It is interesting to note that Hindu women in their "Lajja" modesty also take the palloo or edge of the sari over their face and express shyness and modesty. hhTis is considered a very sweet womanly "style" expression and has nothing to do with suppression or oppression as such. ( See star plus dramas ,made in India).
Punjabis and other muslims in Pakistan were living happily in the sense that there was sectarian tolerance and women worked in fields and as teachers, nurses, doctors in the cities also. There was no problem of the burka.
Post Zia era when religious so called extremist thrust increased, the burka became more fashionable in some regions in Pakistan. Earlier it was only a few women fron religious parties like Jamat e Islami( Maulana Maudoodi's party) who were wearing burka with face covering hijab. A few other maulana's people also covered their faces.We were neither exhorted by these people to wear the burka or cover our faces.Now over the years, the extremism, intolerance, failure to respect other people's view point and respect their culture has increased and now we are seeing open threats to violence even by female activists of the jamaat to women who do not wear the burka. I am a personal witness to this where I always had avery friendly and positive interaction with even the male leaders o f the Jammat in the early 80's now I am afraid to talk to their minor female activists.
In Saudi Arabia, burka was worn almost evrywhere, many other arab countries, the burka was popular in villages mostly and the urban women were less inclined towards it.The wide gap between women wearing burka was not really one of perception as all muslim societies were tolerant towards women who were not wearing it.three things happened which almost changed the whole perception of burka. The iranian revolution, almost directly rejected the western look of a female , thanks to the US siding up with Shah and throwing away Mossadaq and the religious leadership's populrity in Iran.Now over the years , thanks to the Basij, it is again symbolising what Mr. Jeffreys would call non_Hegelian, suppression of individual freedoms.
The Saudiazation of the islamic religious scholars 'view of the Pakistani woman, which mostly spread in the Pathan population initially. These religious scholars were running seminaries and madressahs which was bieng funded by saudi money. The women in these populations were first to take this burka elment. You would be surprised that the blue colour burka worn in afghanistan is considered more islamic by many fundamentalist Pathans , naturally as they have more influence and interaction with Afghan pathans. Many of these people describe the black burka as fashionable and westernised and therefore rejected and ordered to abstain from. A particular area in Frontier was ordered by Taleban, not to wear the black un Islamic burka. The same black burka is worn by Pathan religious student population in Karachi.
The Afghan Jehad where the Islamist Mujaheddin became more popular and later were taken over by Taleban again enforced the burka as means of implementing so called Islamic edicts on a helpless women population which was aghast with poverty, death of loved ones(more than 25000 widows in Kabul alone).This enforcement of chastity on a populace who is protected by the prophet of Islam (orphans and widows) and the Koran more than anything else in the world.
The third and most important symbol of suppression of human rights and I would really like an unbiased take of a westerner on this is Israel's thrust on rejecting the muslim Palestinian identity. As the Palestinians were more suppressed in their rights , they became more expressive in their religious symbolism and as happened in post Shah Iran, women expressed by taking up the burka.
Now my input as to why I said Mr. Sarkozy was right in his ideas. I did not say he was right in his expression or articulation. I have no love for the French President, though he does epitomise a kind of high achiever. But, nevertheless,the burka in a muslim society now symbolises, subjugation of women, as most muslim countries are very bad in women 's rights obligations and justice.It does refect subjugation as the extremist movements are focussing on keeping women invisible and as recently see in Buner, a man was shot by taleban for not giving his daughter to a taleban.
It does reflect subjugation in Saudi Arabia where women are treated as second class citizens,where men and rich men at that can get away with rape and murder.Where liqour is drunk routinely but a woman is beheaded for doubt of sexual act.
It does reflect subjugation in Iran, where more than half the people on death row are children, and a sizable number are girls.Where you are muslim but if you do not side with a particular establishment or religious elitist view you are doomed.
It does reflect subjugation in Pakistan where women have only recently been given some refuge from the Draconian hudood ordinances, in which the victim of rape was put in jaila d the rapist set free for want of evidence.This country even today a woman who is raped is considered unchaste. (I will post the photo of a child who wasraped when 3 years and even her eyes were gouged out.She comes to us for rehablitation and is a living witness to this crime against humanity.)
The choice to wear a burka or not, should be upto the individual and in free societies like France, they should not express themselves as if they are subjugated. Freedom to wear Hijab is an expression of islam but burka surely not.

Out Of Sync Pakistanis! Bad Reporting On Iran!

The Iran Election and post election events reveal the lack of objective reporting by our senior journalists. A senior journalist was crying hoarse on a tv phone in that he had been invited by Iranians to see the elections and he said that I want to tell millions of Pakistanis that Ahmedinijad was overwhelmingly winning in rural areas. This in pre election rallies. Little does he know that 70 % of population now lives in cities and Teheran always reflects the tide of intellectual Iran and is representative of the political scene. Just like Karachi !Their visit and excitement does not prove a thing about Ahmedinijad winning the election. The real fight is now between Mousavi and Khamenei as shown in an article by Simon Tinsdall in editorial page of Dawn newspaper. Mousavi is also now accidental leader. If he was not there it would be another. All the four candidates were chosen out of more than 300 by the guqardian council. All have been approved by the establishment and clergy. Why do our journalists give such stupid and small statements siding up with the incumbent as if siding up with the other would be anti "Islamic"? They have to give unbiased coverage. How can siding up with incumbent be more appropriate in journalistic freedoms and rights of information. If you are trying to protect the principles of "Revolution" then it becomes more appropriate to recognise that "Revolution " is dynamic. Iran itself is not doing any good by blocking BBC etc.,as if the whole world does not watch BBC.We all wait and watch their news no matter what the time and circumstances. When I was a kid in 1965 India Pakistan war, then 1970,all the time.People know the difference and can sense biased and racist reporting. Free press and free expression is everything in the world. Stupid reporting and curbing free expression will never hide the truth.

So out of sync we have been that in the Suez dilemma we were ,that to this day our relations with Egypt are not good. Indian muslims were Khilafat supporters when Ataturk was coming into power. As recent as the American forces were invading Iraq our Tv anchors, I specifically remember one on Geo was saying that Saddam will be victorious and within half an hour the American forces were inside Iraq. I am not justifying the invasion but reporting has to be factual.
The iranian people are fighting for their rights . There are horrible practices such as Rijm still bieng practised. There are more than 70 children including girls on death row. The crime or such reporting is not free. The Basij force are just like Taleban maybe more brutal.They are given a free hand in torture and murder All this is bieng done in the name of revolution. I am sure that Imam Khomeni never visualised such an autocratic way of ruling. Mousavi was more close to Imam Khomeni so he knows what he is talking about. The anti Americanism slogan may not be so appealing for many younger Iranians now . What is so un Islamic about it? All revolutions have to maintain dynamism. 30 years is a long period for maintaining this kind of stance. Iran is a great nation. It has to move forward. Anti Americanism and stagnation in political dynamism and compromise will not help. In this they are helping their own "enemies',the neo cons and Israel.
Pakistani media persons need to do more unbiased reporting and not bring their half baked, psuedo religious ideas in reporting.The human rights violations especially against women and children are to be addressed in Iran just like, Karo Kari, honour killings,and other violent acts against women and children in Pakistan.

Just by saying that we are more muslims and America and Israel are doing this and that and putting the Iran post election problem in the same context will not solve anything. These same journalists hailed the Afghan war and the Mujehiddin in that era and look what it is doing to Pakistan today. We are fighting for our existence. Had these journalists and media people done responsible journalism then w e would not have been in this state. I hope that some senior people take this matter seriously and report on Iran in a more responsible way so that Pakistan has a good relation with whoever comes into power.We have to be with Iranian peoples not the only ruling elite or incumbent president.

Very Insightful interview Dr Brezinski with Joe, Pat Buchanan And His own Daughter Mika

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What USA needs to do. Very insightful interview .

Obama,Daal,Qeema,Pakistan.

Obama loves Pakistan, can cook daal, Qeema which he learnt from his Pakistani friends' moms during his college years on his Pakistan visits. He seemed relaxed and smiled often during this interview to Dawn TV News.He seemed more relaxed than on a Sunday holiday. I always was struck by his pronunciation of the word Pakistan more clear than Fareed Zakaria's almost like a Pakistani .Now I understand. There is a need now for moderate ,intellegent Pakistanis to take his extended hand in friendship and build on this.We desperately need to project Pakistan as a moderate, peaceful country. The militant and terrorist image needs to be changed. The people who are chanting anti America slogans are infact doing damage to the Muslims in USA and Europe . The Pakistani diaspora in USA was mentioned in friendly terms by Obama.We also need to acknowledge this. See his interview on Dawn News Tv.

Iran,Where Is It Going?Time Magazine New Article,Joe Klien's new Interview.

And the protests turned deadly continued on the fourth day. nine people dead. The crowds were mostly young people and university students. Both men and women. as I looked at their faces I asked my husband about the Mousavi crowd looking like educated upper middle class outh. Yes he said. He has a rich experience of Iran,pre-revolution and has followed it's politics post revolution for intellectual interest.Only those will rule whom the religious elite will allow!So this is the reality. The crowds that Ahmedinijad pulled were also substantial. So why was the western media making so much noise. Well for one they want people who are more open to west to come, and two they want the religious dominance status qou to be broken. But then as is happening all over the world religious dominant groups more in government and appearing powerful. Is that changing? In USA itself exit Bush and in with Obama. Pakistan's military taking on it's own militants. Is Iran mini -revolt (Rafsanjani,Mousavi) an indication of Iran's peoples ending of romance with dogmatic,fanatic,religiosity and entering or ushering of a new modern albiet not so westernised Iran?
Meanwhile watch this Time correspondent interview for insight into this quasi -revolution setup or change. He describes it as upper middle class revolt which will fizzle out soon. I disagree but watch this fascinating piece.

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