R O N I Nammar yasir’s personal blog

The New York Time video report ‘Tuning Out the Taliban’ after its release started a new debate in the Pakistani literary corner. Are we living in denial? Is Taliban not Pakistan’s enemy number # 1? Are the newcons trying to de Islamize Pakistan? Has Ali Azmat gone nuts? These are few of the many questions that we all ask ourselves in the current situation. But one apparent trend that can easily be spotted among these pseudo intellectual debates, is the thirst for change in our masses especially in the thinking young generation. The generation before us gave us the legacy of nothingness. The oldies were married to their traditions; they made no significant change in their time and the mess that we live in today is the gift of their laziness and pseudo-traditional-religious bull crap.

But wait, if the new generation hates all that then why people like Zaid Hamid are attracting these young minds. Why the man in the red cap who is the Wikipedia of “Islamic historic achievements” and the google of conspiracy plans (cooked by the Zionists against the great Muslims) is getting popular among the masses with his rhetoric narrations. One theory states, that for every nation that wants to evolve from the ruins should be reminded of the very foundation the nation stands on. Therefore the young minds should be reminded repeatedly of Islam’s past achievements and traditional enemies. Even for a second if we approve the mentioned theory, even then Zaid Hamid’s rhetoric’s falls flat. Because we can’t hide the fact that Islamic history despite its achievements had a brutal not so pleasant past. One big example is the assassination of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) grandson in the hands of men who claimed to be Muslims, that one incident created a rift that resulted in the number of sects the religion has today. But was this predicament ever address by Zaid Hamid or any religious cleric or critic for that matter?

This negligence resulted in another apologist point of view that allowed an individual (who claimed to be religiously righteous, wore a long beard and pointed every apposing entity haram or biddat) to be supreme even if that person committed great crimes including the killing of innocent lives. One historic example is Mughal King Aurangzeb who put his father behind the bars, and killed all his brothers just to be on throne. Aurangzeb just because of his apparent religious inclination is considered to be righteous and humble. The same apologist theory was preached during Zia regime in Pakistan and the American aided Afghan war was labeled Jehad. The same apologist theory today is endorsed by people who believe that a Muslim cant carry out a suicide attack and in other words these terrorists are not Muslims neither Taliban. It’s a big black (water) American/Zionist conspiracy. If you ask me today how many people in Pakistan support Taliban; my answer would be 1 out of every fourth individual is a Taliban supporter one way or the other. Reason, pointing fingers is easier then solving the mess in your backyard.

We are desperately in need of a practical leader who will be an example and lead us out of this mess. Yes Islam had a glorious past but the inglorious part of Islam which was never addressed in the past has now become the ugly part of our everyday life. We find justifications for Taliban if they blow up girl schools or conduct a suicide attack in Peshawar every day. People like Zaid Hamid or Israr Ahmed never in their own lives did anything practical that changed the lives of others for good.

If we look up the recent history:

I would like to play the role that Zaid Hamid plays in his programs but instead I will look up the history that actually matters today, and not the one that can only make me feel good.

In January 1996, two Stanford University PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin changed the minds of every internet user with their research project which they named “Google”. On October 23, 2001 Apple Computers publicly announced their portable music digital player the iPod, which for every one surprise changed the life style of millions and expectations of an average user from electronic gadgets. YouTube (an online video sharing and viewing community) was named Time Magazines Invention of the year in 2006, nobody at that time knew that one website will completely revolutionized the preferences of tele viewer in the coming days.

These are the few inventions that made it big among the masses in the past 10 years. Ten years is a long period to decide the future trend and historical influences that led to these inventions. All the mentioned achievements came out of west, by individuals who spend their lives in a modern environment and getting education from the west, where religion played little or no role. In contrast we gave the world Al Qaeda and Taliban. Moon sighting is still an issue in our country. When these religious sheriffs cant solve a simple issue, why should we allow them to decide the fate of our lives?

Popularity: 51% [?]

Back in the day when I was in my teens and cable TV just started gaining popularity in the masses, it was the first time I got introduced to the term Reality TV and there was no other show that appeared horribly REAL then the Jerry Springers show. Bunch of low life Americans (the term given by rich Americans to not so rich Americans) were called upon the show to discuss their personal affairs. Each episode of the show focuses on topics such as adultery, divorce, homophobia, homosexuality, incest, infidelity, pedophilia, pornography, prostitution, racism, strange fetishes, dwarfism, or transvestism . The audience (spectators is the right term) was often encouraged by the host of the show to ridicule these guests with their taunting questions. No issue on the table ever got solved and the show always, yes always ended in a catfight.

Now back in the day I used to wonder why people like watching trash TV, what kind of entertainment a normal person gets by watching other people getting ridiculed, beaten up and humiliated on the tele. What form entertainment is this and does this even qualify for amusement. I used to enjoy this (false) sense of moral superiority on the west; “We are poor and our national reserves might be empty, but when it comes to socio cultural values, people in the West should borrow a thing or two from us.” But unfortunately it didn’t take long and the reality bit me in the ass with Pakistan’s very own independent media.

Low budget but high profile, politically charged talk shows took over the entire prime time entertainment. Who saw that coming eh? Humayun Saeed (actor) was replaced by Sheikh Rasheed (pimp/politician) and Maria Wasti (actress) was replaced by more annoying Marvi Memon (politician) but the popularity level only increased. As a result, Pakistani viewers today, know more politicians, lawyers, ISI agents now than they ever knew anything about national hockey team or Lollywood.

So what went wrong?

Well, Jerry Springers happened to the Pakistani media. After Musharraf stripped off his wardi (uniform/skin) and CJ Choudary got restored there was no issue left worth fighting on the tele. News channels needed content for their talk shows and politicians needed scandals to keep them in these shows. So a new trend started where blaming, ridiculing and cursing became the entertaining features of these shows. You hardly ever hear a good news on these news channels. The ratio of good news to a bad news is 1:1000, TV anchors continue to highlight gossipy issues and common man (boring) problems are conveniently ignored. We all witnessed how the Saad Khan case was deliberately covered up by the mainstream media who claims to have “har khabar per nazar” (Eye on every news). TV anchors bluntly refused to bring Saad Khan’s case on their shows and the excuse they gave was lack of evidence but on the other hand a retired ISI member was allowed to use Pakistani Television as a confession box (no evidence was required there eh?).

A recent event that shocked every TV watching Pakistani, was the conversation that took place between two members of the national assembly Dr. Ferdos Aashiq Awan (PPP Minister) and Kashmala Tariq (disputed association with PMLQ) in a political talk show. In this show Ferdos Baji accused Kashmala of things that even a punk on the streets will think twice before uttering. And the language she used made me ask this question to myself:

“Why on God’s green Earth did I vote for these people?”

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not anti democracy or wish to see media getting controlled by the Govt. But aren’t these people professional enough to realize that what kind of conversation is allowed on the Tele when you are holding a public seat or running a national channel? But did any of the two parties learn anything from this shocking incident? The answer is NO, because soon after this show more TV channels invited the same guests to have another round of catfight and Baji Ferdous is anything but ashamed of what she said. This brings us to the conclusion that elites who are running this country are no better than the low lives on the streets in fact worse. As for the media , get ready for the time when they will be reporting about your personal life and the crowd will be chanting “Jerry Jerry!!”

Popularity: 42% [?]

Bulleh Shahs Kafi, brilliant performed by Noori and Saai Zahoor

Parh parh ilm te faazil hoya
Te kaday apnay aap nu parhya ee na

Bhaj bhaj warna ay mandir maseeti
Te kaday mann apnay wich warya ee na

Larna ay roz shaitaan de naal
Te kadi nafs apnay naal larya ee na

Bulleh Shah asmaani ud-deya pharonda ay
Te jera ghar betha unoon pharya ee na

Popularity: 45% [?]

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
the only thing that’s real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything
what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar’s chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt

I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

Popularity: 11% [?]

Hey there Delilah
What’s it like in New York City?
I’m a thousand miles away
But girl, tonight you look so pretty
Yes you do
Times Square can’t shine as bright as you
I swear it’s true

Hey there Delilah
Don’t you worry about the distance
I’m right there if you get lonely
Give this song another listen
Close your eyes
Listen to my voice, it’s my disguise
I’m by your side

Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
What you do to me

Hey there Delilah
I know times are getting hard
But just believe me, girl
Someday I’ll pay the bills with this guitar
We’ll have it good
We’ll have the life we knew we would
My word is good

Hey there Delilah
I’ve got so much left to say
If every simple song I wrote to you
Would take your breath away
I’d write it all
Even more in love with me you’d fall
We’d have it all

Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me

A thousand miles seems pretty far
But they’ve got planes and trains and cars
I’d walk to you if I had no other way
Our friends would all make fun of us
and we’ll just laugh along because we know
That none of them have felt this way
Delilah I can promise you
That by the time we get through
The world will never ever be the same
And you’re to blame

Hey there Delilah
You be good and don’t you miss me
Two more years and you’ll be done with school
And I’ll be making history like I do
You’ll know it’s all because of you
We can do whatever we want to
Hey there Delilah here’s to you
This one’s for you

Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
Oh it’s what you do to me
What you do to me

Popularity: 18% [?]