Capulet saw himself in a robe of softest silk, trailing on the ground behind him. Huge emeralds sparkled at his collar, and his sword shone blue from encrusted diamonds in the hilt. Behind him, in large swathes of movement, a crowd so immense that it stretched beyond the eye could see, the people of the continent roared out a chant of ‘Our Captain, our King’.
|
sm
|
Tags: captain, Capulets, exile, feud, fiefdom, guards, king, Montagues, Polpak, slaves, Supreme Council, war, wealth
|
And, if you haven’t conducted a poll, what long-standing connections do you have in the Valley that opens you up to the pulse of its population? What network of people have you set up to gather and analyse information from the general population (and, especially, from the women), besides what the Swat Bar Association head (who happens to also be a card-carrying member of the party) passes on to you?
In Pakistan, we learn that might is right and when you have might on your side, why compromise? Use violence and political threats, and when you know that fear is a driving force in a nation, you will invariably get your way.
|
sm
|
Tags: fear, judiciary, media, MQM, nizam-e-adl, pakistan, PML-N, political parties, PPP, PTI, shanakht festival, Sufi Mohammad, Swat, taliban
|
A logical, thinking human being will point out that the cornerstone of the Prophet’s life, whom we are to emulate, was compassion, decency and honesty, and that he never would have allowed women to be locked up inside 4 walls, that the first muslim society was an open, tightly-knit community, where men respected women, rather than slandering them.
The more vicious Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians, the more Jews around the world will find themselves in a twenty-first century version of Hitler’s Germany; hated and despised and targetted, Israel is effectively recreating the conditions which led to their 6-year plight in the first place (I say ‘plight’ because the 6 years of what [...]
It’s not that world leaders don’t know that Israel really broke the ceasefire of the last 6 months, assassinating 5 Hamas generals in November as part of their ongoing extra-judicial assassination campaign. It’s not that they don’t know that the people of Gaza have been slowly starved over the last year and a half by [...]
|
sm
|
Tags: bomb, Gaza, Holocaust, India, Iran, Israel, media, Mumbai, pakistan, Palestine, terrorism
|
“Following in the footsteps of the National Assembly, the Senate Standing Committee on Education will also discuss the controversy of extra marks awarded to Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar’s daughter…” (source: The News International, November 28)
Extra marks. Wow. So unusual a practice here in Pakistan; officials in high places pulling strings for their off-spring. This [...]
For several weeks now, the concept of putting words out there in the hope that someone, somewhere, may find a gem of commonality that will bind total strangers, has become more and more distant. From the numerous blogs emanating from South Asia, it seems to me that more have found platforms for fear-mongering and gossip [...]
|
sm
|
Tags: bloggers, Bollywood, culture, film, India, Mumbai, muslims, pakistan, propaganda, South Asia, terrorists, TV
|
Early this morning, Behindthechairmansdoor (BTCD) received a notification from his hosting company that his site had been taken down for copyright infringement. The complaint came from the Christian Science Monitor (CSM), duly taking note of the fact that a recent post from BTCD quoted their story. While I agree that BTCD was wrong to post [...]
In June, 1992, Benazir’s government launched a major offensive against the citizens of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and largest contributor to the National Exchequer, called ‘Operation Clean Up‘. The army spent 29 months battling what was commonly considered a terrorist organization at the time. Monthly death tolls during this period, and attributed solely to the [...]