Translate this Blog

Traduisez , Übersetzen Sie, Traduca , Traduza , Traduzca , 翻訳しなさい , 번역하다 , 翻译 , يترجم

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The big deal about BB?

To the enlightened Pakistanis,

 
 

I happened to be reading for my Bar in London when this tragic incident took place. Then and now i have stuck to my stance, though barraged with a lot of criticism, that Benazir deserved nothing but a few words of sorrow for her death. Yes call me cynical or a disrespectful brat, however truth be told, she left behind nothing for the country to be proud of. Neither was she a success at running the government (twice), or as a women's rights activist as she propounded to be.I did not see her much as a philanthropist(the least she could have done with her Billion of Rupees of her assets), nor did she lead the country out of any problems of any nature that are notable. But credit is dew where it is, and she did succeed in becoming a public figure all around the world, that a drunk individual on the London Bus on route 91 was paying his condolences to me on learning that i am from Pakistan.   

 
 

Now, i hear many talk wonders about her, but it was at my house in '88 when her inner kitchen shadow cabinet took place, where BB was being prepared for her press conferences. A question asked by a late senior PPP official during her prep seemed quite simple "So BB why have you decided to join the Pakistani Politics?" A simple and an honest answer would have been to continue my father's legacy (not much to be proud of there either) but she wanted to touch the hearts of the voter by saying "to stop the injustice that is taking place in Pakistan" and as anyone would have expected, the question followed, "what is this injustice that you talk about?" to which she in all her seriousness replied, whilst chewing on her gum, "i was on my way home (larkana) and i saw that people had been tearing up Bhutto's pictures, and that is such a big injustice the people of Pakistan are facing." (only if i had the permission to leak that video out)

The fact remains, that BB continued her struggle for her family name, during the process had her brother assassinated during her regime and did nothing about it, what could the rest of the country expect from her. She left behind a husband who should not even be called a president, and a son, who seems to be in line of his rightful inheritance, knows nothing about Pakistan and its people, yet shall be hailed as a leader.

 
 

In the end, it was a tragic day, a loss the country and the world suffered, but that loss was and is repairable, nothing has been lost. And to all those who ask to respect the dead, to them i shall, leave your sentiments at home. No one is saying anything about BB as a human being, she might have been an angel for all i know, it is her legacy as a Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition (as such) that forms the basis of criticism, and anyone who enters the public sphere should embrace to accept that (along with their followers). For let me assure you Hitler is dead too, so is Sadaam, not to forget Bugti, or the many taliban insurgents. Should i sit and say prayers for all ?


 

By Ahmed Moinuddin II

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

If I had my life to live over

Of course, you can't unfry an egg, but there is no law against thinking about it.

If I had my life to live over, I would try to make more mistakes.
I would relax. I know of very few things that I would take seriously.
I would go more places. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
I would eat more ice cream and less bran.

I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary troubles.
You see, I have been one of those fellows who live prudently and sanely, hour after hour, day after day.
Oh, I have had my moments. But if I had it to do over again, I would have more of them – a lot more.

I never go anywhere without a thermometer, a gargle, a raincoat and a parachute.
If I had it to do over, I would travel lighter.

If I had my life to live over, I would pay less attention to people telling us we must learn Latin or History; otherwise we will be disgraced and ruined and flunked and failed.
I would seek out more teachers who inspire relaxation and fun.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefooted a little earlier in the spring and stay that way a little later in the fall.
I would shoot more paper wads at my teachers.
I would keep later hours.

I'd have more sweethearts.
I would go to more circuses.
I would be carefree as long as I could, or at least until I got some care- instead of having my cares in advance.

I doubt, however, that I'll do much damage with my creed.
The opposition is too strong.
There are too many serious people trying to get everybody else to be too darned serious.

(there are several versions of this text circulating in Internet. The one above is attributed to Don Harold)

Paulo Coelho's Blog

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A Letter to Son by Renonwed HK TV Broadcaster X

Written by - Renowened Honkong TV Broadcaster

My son,

I am writing this to you because of 3 reasons:-


1. Life, fortune and mishaps are unpredictable; nobody knows how long he lives. Some words are better said early.

2. I am your father, and if I don't tell you these, no one else will.

3. What are written is my own personal bitter experiences that perhaps could save you a lot of unnecessary heartaches.



Remember the following as you go through life

1. Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and me.

To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful; don't hastily regard him as a real friend. Whereas when a person is really mean to you, it doesn't necessarily make him an enemy. He might be having a right day or may want to prevent / protect you from a harm which you wouldn't realize otherwise.

2. No one is indispensable, nothing in the world that you must possess. Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don't want you anymore, or when you lose what/whom you love most.


3. Life is short. When you waste your life today, tomorrow you would find that life is leaving you. The earlier you treasure your life, the better you enjoy life. Make the most of everyday, every second counts.

4. Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one's mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness. Don't over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don't over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love.

5. A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags!

6. I do not expect you to financially support me when I am old, neither would I financially support you, your whole life. My responsibility as a supporter ends when you are grown up. After that, you decide whether you want to travel in a public transport or in your limousine, whether rich or poor.

7. You honour your words, but don't expect others to be so. You can be good to people, but don't expect people to be good to you. If you don't understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles.

8. I have bought lotteries for umpteen years, but I never strike any prize. That shows if you want to be rich, you have to work hard! There is no free lunch!

9. No matter how much time I have with you, let's treasure the time we have together. We do not know if we would meet again in our next life.

10. You have to learn more, which your dad missed and now regret, and your grandpa regretted more on me, though he was full fledged prominent figure

Your Dad

Regards

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

What Can You Do In Ten Minutes?

The Messenger of Allah, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, said, "The best actions are continuous ones even if little..." [Muslim] After I looked at my own state and the state of those who waste their time, I wanted to encourage our souls to obey and worship Allah `azza wa jall by compiling a list of some well-known actions that Allah `azza wa jall has honored us with and prepared a great reward for those who do them. This list is also a reminder of better utilizing our time and seizing the opportunity of every hour and making use of it. My goal in compiling the list is not to point out the actions as much as to show the necessity of organizing and planning and preserving one's time by investing it in something good.

First of all, let us talk about time, with which many are heedless and wasteful, and which importance only few recognize.

Time is like wealth, it requires our attention and care in both spending and managing. While it is possible to gather and store wealth, and even add to it, time, however, is in no way like that. For every minute that passes can never come back even if you were to spend all the wealth of this world.

So since time is preordained to be a specific period that can not be brought forward or delayed and since the value of it depends on what it is spent on, it is obligatory upon every human being to preserve time, be it little or long. One should use it in the best possible way and not be heedless about it.

In order to preserve one's time, one must reflect on how and where to spend it. The best way to spend time is in obeying Allah ta`ala. One will never regret time spent in such acts of obedience. The only regret would be that if one were not to take yet more provisions in terms of good actions. So set your goal, O brother or sister, make your intention sincere, beginning with a desire to preserve your time and beware of wasting any minute of it.

My noble brother and sister,

I selected the time span of ten minutes (for performing particular righteous actions listed in this book) due to ease of application, so that one starts with them until he or she engages in good all the time, by Allah's grace. In these actions there is conformity with the saying of the Messenger, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam,"The most beloved action to Allah is the most continuous, even if little." [Muslim]

Imam an-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on him, said in relation to this hadeeth, "In it (the above hadeeth) is an exhortation to perform deeds regularly and continuously, and [an explanation] that a small deed done regularly is better than a great one that is interrupted. It is because by continuously doing a little of such actions as, [one's] obedience, remembrance, awareness of Allah, sincerity and dedication to the Creator, subhanahu wa ta`ala, the outcome accumulates and it is multiplied exceeding what is greater but interrupted."

The Messenger, sallalahu `alayhi wa sallam, spoke the truth. My dear brother or sister, I will give you an example of the blessing of utilizing ten minutes in righteousness. Glorifying Allah subanahu wa ta`ala by saying "Subhan Allah" a hundred times daily means that one will do so 36,500 times in a year. So take account of your soul, my brother or sister. You can only glorify Allah this much in a year if you are regular in performing tasbeeh and if you make good use of your time.

Similarly, if one reads the Qur'an for ten minutes regularly, one can finish reading it in full every two months. Is this how you do it? Ask yourself, do you complete recitation of the full Qur'an outside of Ramadan? And do not limit, my dear brother or sister, these special ten minutes, devoted to obedience, to be performed only once a day. Perhaps you will find the time after the morning prayer, or after the sunrise, or after the noon prayer, or before sleep.

Likewise, if one manages to memorize only a single verse from the Book of Allah, `azza wa jall, every day, he or she will complete memorization the complete Qur'an in only eight years.

Most of the actions mentioned are performed with the tongue, so one is able to gain rewards at all times and in all situations. So whoever wants to strive in obedience to Allah, doors of good are open and one can make one's days and indeed all of one's life like the ten minutes. Abu Bakra, radhiallahu anhu, related that a person said: "O Messenger of Allah, which people are the best?" He said, "Whose life is long and his actions good." He said, "And what people are the worst?" He said, "Whose life is long and his actions bad." [Muslim]

This is an opportunity for you, dear brother or sister. Ten minutes in which one can taste the sweetness of regularity of performing righteous actions and which can be a step towards managing one's time, until all of one's life becomes beneficial. Ten minutes that are in agreement with the saying of Allah `azza wa jall,"And I have not created the Jinn or humans except to worship Me." [adh-Dhaariyaat (51):56]

Ibn ul-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "In conclusion, the servant, when he turns away from Allah and becomes preoccupied with sins (in this world), he loses days of his true life (in the hereafter). He will see the consequence of losing them the Day he says, "He will say, 'Oh, I wish I had sent ahead [some good] for my life [i.e. true, everlasting life in the Hereafter].'" [al-Fajr (89):24]"

Some actions that can be done in ten minutes:

The forenoon prayer

Recitation of the Quran (With Understanding)

Salawat on the Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam

Praying Salat al-Janazah

Remembrance of Allah, `azza wa jall

Saying Subhan Allah, alhamdulillah and Laa ilaha ill Allah

Teaching children

Supplication

Taking account of oneself

Reading

Removal of others' difficulties and fulfillment of their needs

Preserving ties of kinship

Listening to da`wah tapes

Visiting believers for Allah's sake

Remembering Allah after the obligatory prayers

Making peace between people

Advising

Phoning relatives

Writing one's will

Giving charity

Reading traditions of the Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam

Contemplating

Mailing da`wah information

Feeding the poor

Praying Salat al-Istikharah

Taking care of orphans

Serving one's family

Seeking knowledge

Ordering good

Making sajdah

Spreading Islamic knowledge

Calling to Allah

Giving Sadaqa jariyyah (charity that carries perpetual award)

Guiding and nurturing one's children

Repeating after the mu'adhdhin

Performing the night prayer

Source: Madha taf`al fi `ashara daqa'iq"

By 'Abdulmaalik al-Qaasim

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

What Can You Do In Ten Minutes?

The Messenger of Allah, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, said, "The best actions are continuous ones even if little..." [Muslim] After I looked at my own state and the state of those who waste their time, I wanted to encourage our souls to obey and worship Allah `azza wa jall by compiling a list of some well-known actions that Allah `azza wa jall has honored us with and prepared a great reward for those who do them. This list is also a reminder of better utilizing our time and seizing the opportunity of every hour and making use of it. My goal in compiling the list is not to point out the actions as much as to show the necessity of organizing and planning and preserving one's time by investing it in something good.

First of all, let us talk about time, with which many are heedless and wasteful, and which importance only few recognize.

Time is like wealth, it requires our attention and care in both spending and managing. While it is possible to gather and store wealth, and even add to it, time, however, is in no way like that. For every minute that passes can never come back even if you were to spend all the wealth of this world.

So since time is preordained to be a specific period that can not be brought forward or delayed and since the value of it depends on what it is spent on, it is obligatory upon every human being to preserve time, be it little or long. One should use it in the best possible way and not be heedless about it.

In order to preserve one's time, one must reflect on how and where to spend it. The best way to spend time is in obeying Allah ta`ala. One will never regret time spent in such acts of obedience. The only regret would be that if one were not to take yet more provisions in terms of good actions. So set your goal, O brother or sister, make your intention sincere, beginning with a desire to preserve your time and beware of wasting any minute of it.

My noble brother and sister,

I selected the time span of ten minutes (for performing particular righteous actions listed in this book) due to ease of application, so that one starts with them until he or she engages in good all the time, by Allah's grace. In these actions there is conformity with the saying of the Messenger, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam,"The most beloved action to Allah is the most continuous, even if little." [Muslim]

Imam an-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on him, said in relation to this hadeeth, "In it (the above hadeeth) is an exhortation to perform deeds regularly and continuously, and [an explanation] that a small deed done regularly is better than a great one that is interrupted. It is because by continuously doing a little of such actions as, [one's] obedience, remembrance, awareness of Allah, sincerity and dedication to the Creator, subhanahu wa ta`ala, the outcome accumulates and it is multiplied exceeding what is greater but interrupted."

The Messenger, sallalahu `alayhi wa sallam, spoke the truth. My dear brother or sister, I will give you an example of the blessing of utilizing ten minutes in righteousness. Glorifying Allah subanahu wa ta`ala by saying "Subhan Allah" a hundred times daily means that one will do so 36,500 times in a year. So take account of your soul, my brother or sister. You can only glorify Allah this much in a year if you are regular in performing tasbeeh and if you make good use of your time.

Similarly, if one reads the Qur'an for ten minutes regularly, one can finish reading it in full every two months. Is this how you do it? Ask yourself, do you complete recitation of the full Qur'an outside of Ramadan? And do not limit, my dear brother or sister, these special ten minutes, devoted to obedience, to be performed only once a day. Perhaps you will find the time after the morning prayer, or after the sunrise, or after the noon prayer, or before sleep.

Likewise, if one manages to memorize only a single verse from the Book of Allah, `azza wa jall, every day, he or she will complete memorization the complete Qur'an in only eight years.

Most of the actions mentioned are performed with the tongue, so one is able to gain rewards at all times and in all situations. So whoever wants to strive in obedience to Allah, doors of good are open and one can make one's days and indeed all of one's life like the ten minutes. Abu Bakra, radhiallahu anhu, related that a person said: "O Messenger of Allah, which people are the best?" He said, "Whose life is long and his actions good." He said, "And what people are the worst?" He said, "Whose life is long and his actions bad." [Muslim]

This is an opportunity for you, dear brother or sister. Ten minutes in which one can taste the sweetness of regularity of performing righteous actions and which can be a step towards managing one's time, until all of one's life becomes beneficial. Ten minutes that are in agreement with the saying of Allah `azza wa jall,"And I have not created the Jinn or humans except to worship Me." [adh-Dhaariyaat (51):56]

Ibn ul-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "In conclusion, the servant, when he turns away from Allah and becomes preoccupied with sins (in this world), he loses days of his true life (in the hereafter). He will see the consequence of losing them the Day he says, "He will say, 'Oh, I wish I had sent ahead [some good] for my life [i.e. true, everlasting life in the Hereafter].'" [al-Fajr (89):24]"

Some actions that can be done in ten minutes:

The forenoon prayer

Recitation of the Quran (With Understanding)

Salawat on the Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam

Praying Salat al-Janazah

Remembrance of Allah, `azza wa jall

Saying Subhan Allah, alhamdulillah and Laa ilaha ill Allah

Teaching children

Supplication

Taking account of oneself

Reading

Removal of others' difficulties and fulfillment of their needs

Preserving ties of kinship

Listening to da`wah tapes

Visiting believers for Allah's sake

Remembering Allah after the obligatory prayers

Making peace between people

Advising

Phoning relatives

Writing one's will

Giving charity

Reading traditions of the Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam

Contemplating

Mailing da`wah information

Feeding the poor

Praying Salat al-Istikharah

Taking care of orphans

Serving one's family

Seeking knowledge

Ordering good

Making sajdah

Spreading Islamic knowledge

Calling to Allah

Giving Sadaqa jariyyah (charity that carries perpetual award)

Guiding and nurturing one's children

Repeating after the mu'adhdhin

Performing the night prayer

Source: Madha taf`al fi `ashara daqa'iq"

By 'Abdulmaalik al-Qaasim

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Why did Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had Eleven wives?

The Qur'an, in Surah Nisa, chapter 4 verse 3, states that a Muslim is allowed to marry a maximum of only four wives. Another verse in the Qur'an makes Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) an exception to this rule.

In Surah Ahzab chapter 33 verse 52:

"It is not lawful for thee (to marry more) women after this, nor to change them for (other) wives, even though their beauty attract thee, except any thy right hand should possess (as hand maidens) and Allah doth watch over all things ". [Al-Qur'an 33:52]

This verse clearly gives Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) the permission to keep all his previous wives but prohibits him to marry any more women except those which his right hand possessed i.e. slave girls.

The Prophet (pbuh) was allowed to keep all his previous wives because no one was allowed to marry the Prophet's wives (ra) after they were divorced or widowed as they were ummul-momineen (mother of the believers).

People falsely accuse the Prophet (pbuh) of being hypersexual (Maaz-Allah), because he had eleven wives. If you read the life history of the Prophet (pbuh), only two of his marriages one with Khadija (ra), and the other, with Ayesha (ra) were marriages in the normal course. All his other marriages were contracted as a necessity and were based on various considerations.

The first marriage of the Prophet (pbuh) took place when he was 25 years of age and he married Khadija (ra) who was twice widowed, and was 40 years old. If the Prophet (pbuh) was hypersexual, why would he marry a woman who was 15 years older than him and already twice widowed?

Until his first wife, Khadija (ra) was alive, he never took a second wife. Khadija (ra) expired when the Prophet (pbuh) was 50 years age and only after this, did he marry the others. If he married eleven wives for sexual reasons, he should have had multiple wives during his youth. Contrary to this, history tells us that all his marriages with his remaining ten wives took place when he was between the age of 53 and 59 years.

All his wives (ra) were between the age of 36 to 50 years, except for two wives (ra). His reputation had spread far and wide, not only in Arabia, but also in the neighboring countries. Could he not have easily got younger and lovelier girls to marry? Most of his marriages were for political gain and for the spread of Islaam.

In Arabia, no one could carry on the work of reform and upliftment unless he belonged to, or was related to some specific and respectable tribe. Thus, in the interest of his mission, the Prophet (pbuh) needed inter-tribal relationships. He wanted to weld the quarreling tribal and clannish factions into one Muslim ummah, as brethren in faith (Ikhwan fi'd-din).

For instance, his wife Juwayreeyah (ra) belonged to the Banu Mustaliq clan, which was very powerful. The entire clan was a bitter enemy of Islam from the start, and they were finally suppressed by military action. When the Prophet (pbuh) married Juwayreeyah (ra), the Muslims released all their prisoners, saying that they could not keep the prophet's relatives in bondage. It was due to this marriage that the whole clan of Banu Mustaliq accepted Islam and became peaceful and obedient to the laws of the new Islaamic state.

Maymunah (ra) also came from a very powerful and recalcitrant clan from Najd and was the sister of the wife of the chief of the clan in those days. It was this clan which had brutally murdered seventy members of an Islaamic missionary deputation. The Prophet's (pbuh) marriage with Maymunah (ra) changed the whole atmosphere and Najd accepted Madinah's authority under the leadership of the Prophet (pbuh).

Umm Habibah (ra) was the daughter of the Quraysh chief, Abu Sufyan. It was after the Prophet's (pbuh) marriage to Umm Habibah, that Abu Sufyan never fought against the Prophet (pbuh). This marriage was largely responsible for the conquest of Makkah. Furthermore, Umm Habibah was first married to a certain Ubaydullah and emigrated with him to Abyssinia, where Ubaydullah became a Christian and a drunkard. Excessive consumption of wine killed him since it was a double shock to her that her husband had become a Christian and later died, she was badly in need of solace.

Safiyyah (ra) was the daughter of a very prominent Jewish chief, Huyyah ibn Aktab. In consideration of her family status, she could not be merged into an ordinary household. So the Prophet (pbuh) himself married her. After this marriage, the Jews did not dare to revive their opposition to the Prophet (pbuh) and his mission.

In the case of Hafsah (ra), it was the Prophet's (pbuh) desire to bind in relationship with those of his great companions (sahabah) who were his advisers and who were trained for future leadership. He had married Abu Bakr's (ra) daughter, married two of his own daughters to Uthman (ra) and one to 'Ali (ra). 'Umar (ra) could not be kept outside this wide circle of relationship. By marrying Umar's daughter Hafsah (ra), the Prophet (pbuh) forged a strong bond of relationship within the Islamic movement thus strengthening the pillars of the ummah.

The Prophet (pbuh) had married his first cousin, Zaynab (ra), to his freed slave, Zayd ibn Haritha (ra), whom he had adopted as his son. This marriage of Zaynab (ra) with Zayd (ra) was intended to break the family and social barriers, but the marriage did not prove to be successful and ended in divorce. When the Prophet (pbuh) saw that Zaynab (ra) was left alone, he felt his responsibility in the matter. He also had to break another convention, according to which an adopted son became a real son. This difficult problem was solved by the Prophet's (pbuh) marriage to Zaynab (ra) (as mentioned in the Qur'an, in Surah Ahzab, chapter no 33 verse 37) to annul that pre-Islamic conception and promulgate an Islamic law instead.

Another lady Zaynab (ra), Umm al Masakin (mother of the poor and helpless), daughter of Khuzayma ibn Al-Haith, belonged to the Hawazin clan. Her husband was killed in the battle of Uhud. To rescue her from widowhood, the Prophet (pbuh) took her as his wife.

After the revelation of the verse in Surah Ahzab, chapter 33 verse 52, the Prophet (pbuh) only married Mary the Copt who was a slave girl sent as a present by the Christian Muqauqas of Egypt. Since the Christian Chieftain of Egypt sent Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) a slave girl as a present, he could not refuse this gift as a refusal would have disturbed the political alliance. He could not keep her as a slave girl, since Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) preached that slaves should be freed. The only option left with him was to marry her, since the Qur'an gave him the permission to do so. Later on she became the mother of Ibrahim (ra) who died in his infancy.

SOURCE

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Thursday, December 9, 2010

How to fight colds and flu: What works and what doesn’t

by The Editors of EatingWell Magazine, on Wed Dec 1, 2010

The much-dreaded cold and flu season is upon us. And if you're like me, there isn't any spare time built into the schedule to be sick. So how can I bolster my defenses against the germs lurking in the common areas in my office, the mall where I do my holiday shopping and the rest stops I encounter in my holiday travels?

Related: Delicious recipes to help boost your immune system

I took a look at the research Emily Sohn and Rachel Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., have written about for EatingWell and pulled together a list of what's worth trying—and what's not.


 

Try It: Vitamin D

In a study published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, children who took daily vitamin D supplements (1,200 IU) were 40 percent less likely to get a common flu virus than kids who took a placebo. Laboratory studies indicate that the nutrient may help immune cells identify and destroy bacteria and viruses that make us sick, says Adit Ginde, M.D., M.P.H., a public health researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

Although the Institute of Medicine released in a report November 30 new recommendations for vitamin D (600 International Units per day for everyone, except men aged 71+ who should get 800 IU), they "only focused on bone health," says Ginde. "There is not yet enough evidence to definitely prove that vitamin D reduces infections, but the amount recommended for bone health is lower than what we think is needed for improved immunity and reduced infections. Most people need at least 1,000 IU a day and some need 2,000 IU daily or higher to reach levels that appear necessary for optimal immune responses." While many experts recommend a vitamin D supplement, you can also get it (in small doses) from fatty fish, such as salmon, and fortified milk—and your body makes vitamin D from the sun.


 

Try It: Green tea

Polyphenols, potent plant antioxidants, are what's believed to give green tea its immune-boosting effects. One laboratory study suggested that a particular type of polyphenols called catechins may kill influenza viruses. To maximize benefits and minimize bitterness, use just-below-boiling water and steep green tea no more than a minute or two. A little lemon and honey can also help blunt the bitterness. But don't add milk, because the proteins will bind to the polyphenols, making them ineffective.


 

Try It: Probiotics

Some research suggests that when these so-called "good" bacteria—found in yogurt, sauerkraut and other foods—reach the lower intestine, they not only suppress the growth of "bad" bacteria but also might activate the immune system to fight off diseases in other ways. But studies showing a clear boost to the immune system are few. In one study of 33 healthy young women, both "regular" yogurt and so-called "probiotic-fortified" yogurt (which contained added beneficial bacteria cultures) were found to boost T-cells, key players in the body's defenses against viruses and other pathogens. But it's a long way from findings like those to "assuming that by loading up on yogurt—or sauerkraut or kimchi—you can boost your immune system enough to fight off something like the H1N1 flu," says Barry Goldin, Ph.D., professor in the department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. Fortifying yourself with a daily dose of fermented foods can't hurt, says Goldin, "but if you want to beat the flu, get vaccinated."


 

Quick tip: Look for fermented dairy products, such as yogurt or kefir (a yogurt-like beverage), that are labeled with a "Live & Active Cultures" seal from the National Yogurt Association. The seal signifies that the yogurt contains a set minimum amount of two particular types of beneficial bacteria.

Related: Healthy Breakfasts With Yogurt


 

Try It: Soluble Fiber

Mice that ate a diet rich in soluble fiber for six weeks recovered from a bacterial infection in half the time it took mice that chowed on meals containing mixed fiber, according to a recent study in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. Soluble fiber—abundant in citrus fruits, apples, carrots, beans and oats—helps fight inflammation, says lead author Christina Sherry, Ph.D., R.D., of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Insoluble fiber—found in wheat, whole grains, nuts and green leafy vegetables—is still important for overall health, but it doesn't seem to have the same impact on immunity. Strive for 25 to 38 grams of total fiber a day, Sherry says, paying extra attention to getting the soluble kind.

Related: High-Fiber Breakfasts You Can Grab & Go


 

Skip It: Airborne

As with many label claims, Airborne's current one begins with a kernel of truth: vitamins A, C, E, zinc and selenium—nutrients in the supplement—are among the vitamins and minerals that our immune systems need to function efficiently. According to a 2002 report in the British Journal of Nutrition, deficiencies of any of these nutrients (or of vitamins B6, B12, folic acid, copper or iron) can depress immunity. But the key word is deficiency; most of us—save for smokers, pregnant women, breastfeeding women and the elderly—meet our needs for these nutrients with the foods we eat. (If you fall into any of those higher-risk categories, talk with your doctor before taking a supplement.) And more isn't better. Excess amounts of many nutrients are potentially harmful, and it's all too easy to go overboard. Just one tablet of Airborne contains 1,667 percent of the daily recommended value (DRV) for vitamin C.


 

Skip It: Glacéau's Vitaminwater "Defense"

This drink, with a label that claims it is "specially formulated with nutrients required for optimal functioning of the immune system," doesn't deliver the mega-high doses of nutrients that Airborne does. (A 20-ounce bottle of the water contains 150 percent of the DRV of vitamin C and 25 percent for four B vitamins and zinc.) Plus it delivers 125 calories per bottle.


 

What do you eat to keep sickness at bay?

By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.

Brierley's interest in nutrition and food come together in her position as nutrition editor at EatingWell. Brierley holds a master's degree in Nutrition Communication from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. A Registered Dietitian, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Vermont.

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Saturday, November 27, 2010

The alchemist (quotes)


Celebrating next week THREE YEARS in the New York times Bestseller List, you find below parts of the dialogue between the shepherd boy and the Alchemist on the way to the pyramids.


"Why do we have to listen to our hearts?" the boy asked, when they had made camp that day.


"Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure."


"But my heart is agitated," the boy said. "It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it's become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I'm thinking about her."


"Well, that's good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say."


"My heart is a traitor," the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. "It doesn't want me to go on."


"That makes sense. Naturally it's afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you've won."


"Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?"


"Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you're thinking about life and about the world."


"You mean I should listen, even if it's treasonous?"


"Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you'll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.


"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.


"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."


"Every second of the search is an encounter with God," the boy told his heart.


"Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him," his heart said. "We, people's hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out indeed, to be threatening place.


"So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won't be heard: we don't want people to suffer because they don't follow their hearts."


From "The Alchemist"

Published on September 18, 2010

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Welcome to the happiest place

By Dominique Dawes


 

Are you really happy? It's a question that has crossed all of our minds. Just a month prior to interviewing researcher, explorer and best-selling author Dan Buettner, I had been wrestling with this question myself.

Am I really happy?

Am I passionate about the work that I do.

Do I love my family and friends, or at least the ones I choose to keep in my small circle.

My faith is at the core of my being. And I really appreciate the little things in life:

  • a rainy Monday,
  • the color of fall (one of my favorite times of the year),
  • my morning coffee that lasts for hours,
  • that special song that sparks a memory,
  • the laughter of children — especially my niece and nephew.


 

For me it's these little things that seem to make me happy. But is that really enough?

I learned a lot from Buettner, who travelled the world in search of the keys to happiness. His new National Geographic book, "Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way," reveals secrets from the world's happiest people. Based on his research, these people reside in Mexico, Denmark, Singapore, and San Luis Obispo, California. And, since the majority of us do not live in those places, he comes up with the "special sauce" to happiness that we can add to our lives so that we, too, can thrive.

According to Buettner, there are six areas that we should focus on that lead to ultimate happiness:

  • Home
  • self
  • financial life
  • social life
  • workplace
  • community

Each area contributes to our overall well-being or lack thereof. Where you live, volunteering your time, connection in a faith-based community, socializing regularly, picking a fulfilling job, and choosing the right mate are all important factors in finding happiness, no matter where you live.

One thing I'm personally going to work on: Spending money on experiences and not on things.

I am not a shopaholic or anything, but I have not invested much money on experiences. So I've signed up for a pottery class, tae kwon do lessons, a knit-and-crochet workshop, a knife-cutting session at a culinary school, and I am thinking about booking myself on a two-week-long African safari.

And what are you going to do to live a happier life?

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

How Spammers Fool Rule-based and Signature-Based Spam Filters

Author: Paul Judge, CTO, CipherTrust, Inc.

Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don't work anymore.

Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be.

Heuristics (Rule-based Filtering)

One method used to combat spam is Rule-based, or Heuristic Filtering. Rule-based filters scan email content for predetermined words or phrases that may indicate a message is spam. For example, if an email administrator includes the word "sex" on a company's rule-based list, any email containing this word will be filtered.

The major drawback of this approach is the difficulty in identifying keywords that are consistently indicative of spam. While spammers may frequently use the words "sex" and 'Viagra" in spam emails, these words are also used in legitimate business correspondence, particularly in the healthcare industry. Additionally, spammers have learned to obfuscate suspect words by using spellings such as "S*E*X", or "VI a a GRR A".

It is impossible to develop dictionaries that identify every possible misspelling of "spammy" keywords. Additionally, because filtering for certain keywords produces large numbers of false positives, many organizations have found they cannot afford to rely solely on rule-based filters to identify spam.


 

Signature-Based Spam Filters

Another method used to combat spam is Signature-based Filtering. Signature-based filters examine the contents of known spam, usually derived from honey pots, or dummy email addresses set up specifically to collect spam. Once a honey pot receives a spam message, the content is examined and given a unique identifier. The unique identifier is obtained by assigning a value to each character in the email. Once all characters have been assigned a value, the values are totaled, creating the spam's signature. The signature is added to a signature database and sent as a regular update to the email service's subscribers. The signature is compared to every email coming in to the network and all matching messages are discarded as spam.

The benefit of signature-based filters is that they rarely produce false-positives, or legitimate email incorrectly identified as spam. The drawback of signature-based filters is that they are very easy to defeat. Because they are backward-looking, they only deal with spam that has already been sent. By the time the honey pot receives a spam message, the system assigns a signature, and the update is sent and installed on the subscribers' network, the spammer has already sent millions of emails. A slight modification of the email message will render the existing signature useless.

Furthermore, spammers can easily evade signature-based filters by using special email software that adds random strings of content to the subject line and body of the email. Because the variable content alters the signature of each email sent by the spammer, signature-based spam filters are unable to match the email to known pieces of spam.

Developers of signature-based spam filters have learned to identify the tell-tale signs of automated random character generation. But as is often the case, spammers remain a step ahead and have developed more sophisticated methods for inserting random content. As a result, most spam continues to fool signature-based filters.


 

The Solution

When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.


 

About the author:

Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The company's flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Link Popularity Tool

Author: Henry James

Links are widely used by various webmasters to judge their internet presence. Even the web crawlers or search engines are using the effective popularity tools to measure the rankings of the various websites. You can also use the latest tools such as link popularity software, online optimizers and prowlers to boost up the page ranking of your website(s). By using these tools, you would certainly gain a greater number of targeted traffic as well as business contacts.

First of all lets us discuss the basics of link popularity. A website is always ranked on the basis of its link popularity. And link popularity is nothing but measuring the number of quality links on your website. Your website can support certain links—inbound outbound and reciprocal links— with other websites in the forms of text link, banners or advertisements. The more quality links you have, the more popular is your website. So, a good link popularity tool or software would drastically increase your page rank provided by the major search engines.

So using link popularity tool is a must for you these days. They help you increase the targeted traffic on your websites. The smart software are even capable of finding out the right links for you. The right links are the ones that are related to your website. For example: if you have a perfume website then the website providing information on perfumes will be made to link to your website by these software.

Apart from this, they also track your link popularity regularly. This further helps you take the apt steps for improving on your links and the top page rank do not seem far any more.

Links if placed properly can bring the most of the internet traffic to your website(s). But how can you find out which ones are the right software for you? Simply, pick a link popularity tool that helps you place your links at the proper places. These software are adept at finding out the websites with good page ranks for you. They find the websites that are related to your websites only. This means that no useless link will be added to your link directory and your link popularity will increase smoothly.

The more quality links you have on your website, the more traffic your site will find. The link popularity tools are one of the most important ways to improve your website ratings in the top search engines. In fact some technical experts hold the view that you should not imagine a good rating by the search engines without having a good network of links.

These tools are easy-to-install and can be installed on every type of operating systems.

Adding more to the benefits of these advanced tools, they can also help you link to your competitors. Some software in the market ensures you to link up with the best competitors in the market. After adding a link to the website, the link popularity tools automatically send an email for reciprocal link request.

You also get the complete reports of quality links with the help of these link popularity tools. You will get to know with whom you are having the links. This way, you can utilize the link popularity tools to enhance the performance of your website.

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Was A Fourth Military Coup Averted In Pakistan?

 The paranoid elected government of President Asif Zardari has been out battling shadows and ghosts, whipping up anti-military sentiment when the military never planned a coup of any sort against him. His problems are with the Supreme Court on legal grounds. To calm frayed nerves, it appears Gen. Kayani agreed to let Zardari and Gilani issue a statement on the three's commitment to 'defending' democracy. Pakistani military could also be bound by 'sovereign guarantees' given as back as 2007 stating that Pakistani military won't destabilize a government created through the US-sponsored NRO deal.

 
 

By AHMED QURAISHI

Tuesday, 28 September 2010.

 
 

 
 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Hardly. Better still, there wasn't a coup to start with.

 
 

Monday's well-timed meeting between the so-called 'troika' – the President, Prime Minister, and the Army chief – is being widely interpreted as having averted a possible collapse of the elected Zardari-Gilani government. There is no word from the military's media people on the meeting but the president's media office took the liberty of releasing a statement renewing the commitment of Gen. Kayani, and that of the President and Prime Minister, to defending democracy.

 
 

If there's anyone who created a frenzy about an extra-constitutional [read: military-engineered] change, it is the elected government when it opened indiscriminate fire at shadowy and unseen enemies, warning it will defend democracy, pleading its American friends to issue pro-democracy statements, prodding ministries and NGOs to place newspaper advertisements extolling the virtues of democracy, and unleashing a frontman like Abdul Qayum Jatoi to whip up anti-military sentiment. By choosing Balochistan and Akbar Bugti's house as a venue for Mr. Jatoi's provocative lines, it was a clear message to the Pakistani military that, if toppled, the Zardari government will use Balochistan against the federation. It was naked blackmail. It came on top of other forms of blackmail – the waving of the so-called Sindh card, Zulfiqar Mirza's statement about breaking away from Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto's death, and coalition partner ANP's recent bold statement linking respect for the military to respect for the elected government.

 
 

This paranoia by the elected government worsened when the ruling politicians saw the military winning hearts and minds in interior Sindh and Balochistan, where people saw soldiers saving them when politicians in power diverted flood water to save their lands. Another thing that sent shivers down the spines in the PPPP government was to see the Pakistani military gaining ground once again in America's war on terror, forcing Washington to become dependent again on Pakistani military's goodwill.

 
 

So, did Gen. Kayani deliberately become part of the 'defend-democracy' meeting on Monday?

 
 

No doubt about that. He must have been told about the statement that would be issued after the meeting and he accepted it. Or President Zardari might have wanted to test the waters with the general on the post-meeting statement and Gen. Kayani simply said yes [what else could he do? Say no?]. Or maybe it was Gen. Kayani's initiative to suggest such a meeting in order to calm the frayed nerves of the government. It could be any one of the three scenarios, we don't know for sure. There are also rumors that either Mr. Gilani or Gen. Kayani brought up the question of expelling some figures who occupy key positions in the Zardari government. Again, no confirmation from any quarter about this, but it's important to recall that a similar understanding was reached between the troika last year after the Kerry-Lugar bill fiasco and it seems the government reneged later, benefiting from the military's distraction after a bold terror attack on the GHQ building in Rawalpindi.

 
 

All of these reports are important and cannot be ignored but they remain unconfirmed. What is confirmed, however, is that the military wasn't planning any coup.

 
 

Here is a key point that analysts forget when debating this point: whether it likes it or not, the Pakistani military is one of the main guarantors for the Mush-BB-US-UK deal of 2006-7 that created the piece of law called NRO and the incumbent coalition government in Islamabad. For the Pakistani military to remove this government would amount to staging a coup against the whole set of 'sovereign guarantees' that Gen. Musharraf left Pakistan and the military saddled with. Apparently these guarantees include a lot of secret clauses about US activities in Pakistan, in addition to committing the Pakistani military to avoid destabilizing this government. [Yes, despite US criticism about the corruption of the current Pakistani government, Washington won't ditch it so easily. Just ask the US ambassador in Islamabad how much busy time she spent earlier this year quietly convincing opposition politicians 'not to rock the boat'!]. 

 
 

The day the Pakistani military turns against this government would be the day Pakistan would opt out of America's failed war effort in the region.

 
 

So, has a fourth coup been averted?

 
 

Hardly. Conditions for a military intervention in Pakistan continue to exist. After all, this nation can't spend the next nine decades of this century with this kind of a messy and porous political system. But for the time being, whatever problems the government faces are with the Supreme Court. And only a fool would advise the military to stage a coup and stop the politicians from doing such a wonderful job of proving they are not fit to rule now or in the future, without inducting new faces and, more importantly, a new mindset.

 
 

 
 

© 2007-2010. All rights reserved. PakNationalists.com

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

 
 

YOUR comment IS IMPORTANT. Do NOT underestimate the power of your comment

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Thursday, August 26, 2010

U.S. Military Computer Attack Confirmed

On Wednesday August 25, 2010, 5:20 pm EDT

WASHINGTON — A top Pentagon official has confirmed a previously classified incident that he describes as "the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever," a 2008 episode in which a foreign intelligence agent used a flash drive to infect computers, including those used by the Central Command in overseeing combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Plugging the cigarette-lighter-sized flash drive into an American military laptop at a base in the Middle East amounted to "a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control," according to William J. Lynn 3d, deputy secretary of defense, writing in the latest issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

"It was a network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary," Mr. Lynn wrote.

The incident was first reported in November 2008 by the Danger Room blog of Wired magazine, and then in greater detail by The Los Angeles Times, which said that the matter was sufficiently grave that President George W. Bush was briefed on it. The newspaper mentioned suspicions of Russian involvement.

But Mr. Lynn's article was the first official confirmation. He also put a name — Operation Buckshot Yankee — to the Pentagon operation to counter the attack, and said that the episode "marked a turning point in U.S. cyber-defense strategy." In an early step, the Defense Department banned the use of portable flash drives with its computers, though it later modified the ban.

Mr. Lynn described the extraordinary difficulty of protecting military digital communications over a web of 15,000 networks and 7 million computing devices in dozens of countries against farflung adversaries who, with modest means and a reasonable degree of ingenuity, can inflict outsized damage. Traditional notions of deterrence do not apply.

"A dozen determined computer programmers can, if they find a vulnerability to exploit, threaten the United States's global logistics network, steal its operational plans, blind its intelligence capabilities or hinder its ability to deliver weapons on target," he wrote.

Security officials also face the problem of counterfeit hardware that may have remotely operated "kill switches" or "back doors" built in to allow manipulation from afar, as well as the problem of software with rogue code meant to cause sudden malfunctions.

Against the array of threats, Mr. Lynn said, the National Security Agency had pioneered systems — "part sensor, part sentry, part sharpshooter" — that are meant to automatically counter intrusions in real time.

His article appeared intended partly to raise awareness of the threat to United States cybersecurity — "the frequency and sophistication of intrusions into U.S. military networks have increased exponentially," he wrote — and partly to make the case for a larger Pentagon role in cyberdefense.

Various efforts at cyberdefense by the military have been drawn under a single organization, the U.S. Cyber Command, which began operations in late May at Fort Meade, Maryland, under a four-star general, Keith B. Alexander.

But under proposed legislation, the Department of Homeland Security would take the leading role in the defense of civilian systems.

Though the Cyber Command has greater capabilities, the military operates within the United States only if ordered to do so by the president.

Another concern is whether the Pentagon, or government in general, has the nimbleness for such work. Mr. Lynn acknowledged that "it takes the Pentagon 81 months to make a new computer system operational after it is first funded." By contrast, he noted, "the iPhone was developed in 24 months."

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Flooded Pakistan’s ‘Royal’ Minister In New York

 
 

·       'Royal' FM's Fundraiser Costs National Kitty Heavily

·       US$20,000 at NYC hotel to raise funds for flood victims!

·       Options ignored: cheaper hotels, the residences of the Pakistani Consulate

·       Why Amb. Haqqani failed to convince his boss this time to donate the expense to flood victims

·       Upscale hotel because the minister is a 'blue blooded Pakistani politician' or because he's a foreign minister?

 
 

By: Kaswar Klasra | Published: August 25, 2010

The Nation


 

ISLAMABAD – While thousands perished and millions were forced to flee from the floods that swept Pakistan this month, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, who came to New York City with a begging bowl in hand for foreign aid, was spending thousands of dollars per night at cushy five-star hotels in the US.


'Beggars cannot be choosers' evidently is an adage never heard by our honorable leaders. Be it a visit to the flood victims' camps or a trip abroad to collect aid for the badly devastated country of ours by the unprecedented flash floods. Their style and status never appears to change.


To the shock and surprise of the entire nation, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the foreign minister of this unfortunate country spent as many as $20,000 from the national kitty during his stay in a luxury hotel in New York City.

 
 

[This hotel is normally the top choice for those interested in shopping and sightseeing. Here's how one reviewer describes the hotel: "For those travelers who prefer luxurious accommodations in the heart of one of the most exciting cities in the world, the Inter-Continental The Barclay is ideal. The Barclay is just minutes from many of the attractions that make New York City such a vibrant and unique place to visit. Located in midtown Manhattan's East Side, the hotel boasts such famous and beloved neighbors as the exclusive shops of Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, Broadway theaters and New York City's bustling business district."]


The total expenditure of Qureshi's visit including the spending on his six-member entourage may be much more.


Interestingly, when UK Prime Minister David Cameron came to NYC to attend a meeting (Qureshi went there to attend the same meeting) recently, he stayed at the British consulate residence. Qureshi proved to be more Royal than the Royal servants of her Majesty!


According to sources, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his delegation of six assistants who were in NYC recently to beg the world for aid, stayed at Barclay Continental Hotel, one of the most expensive hotels of the city, which cost the national kitty thousands of dollars. It is pertinent to mention here that it is the same hotel where President Asif Zardari has been staying as president whenever he is in New York City.


In comparison, Pakistan Air Force  Chief Qamar Suleman forced Ambassador Hussain Haqqani to cancel a lavish dinner in his honor during his recent visit there. Ironically, following the rejection by the Air Chief, Haqqani is said to have spun the rebuff and released a story to the official APP news agency that he himself had cancelled the dinner and donated the expense to flood victims.

 
 

Interestingly, the Foreign Minister's hotel reservation was also managed by the same ambassador, who avoided hurting his own personal relationship with his boss (Foreign Minister) by suggesting the minister save money and stay at the ambassador's residence, or at least at a less expensive hotel.


When contacted, Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the figures regarding expenditure incurred on Qureshi's stay at the hotel were far less than those mentioned by this correspondent ($20,000).


Such stories are not new for the Pakistanis. The National Assembly was told on April 24, 2008 that President General Pervez Musharraf and his wife had spent Rs1.5 billion from the national kitty on their foreign trips during his five-year tenure.


It was Foreign Minister Qureshi who disclosed that the former president had taken at least 1,325 visitors along with him in 37 trips since February 2003-2008. Musharraf's visit to the USA to attend the book launching ceremony of his autobiography "In the Line of Fire" turned out the most expensive trip, as it cost Rs227 million.

 
 

Likewise, President Asif Zardari and his associates were busy in spending huge money from the national kitty on their stay in luxury hotels abroad, while thousands of people here in Pakistan were facing shortage of food and safe drinking water.

 
 

This report was published by TheNation under title, 'Royal' FM's fundraiser costs the national kitty heavily.

 
 

2007-2010. All rights reserved. 


Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

 
 

YOUR comment IS IMPORTANT

Do NOT underestimate the power of your comment

If you liked this post, Dont forget to BOOKMARK it for others as well. Please CLICK your favorite SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ELEMENT:

StumpleUpon Ma.gnolia DiggIt! Del.icio.us Blinklist Yahoo Furl Technorati Simpy Spurl Reddit Google

Contact Me or Subscribe to my posts

Click to Join my FaceBook Blog Group Page

If you want to send a quick message to me, please click

To Subscribe to my posts, please choose:

Search my Blog for posts that are of interest to you...results will be displayed below

Custom Search

Here are the Results, if you seached for a post

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
Dubai, DXB, United Arab Emirates

Washington, USA

Western Europe Time (GMT)

Dubai

Pakistan

Australia