Never a doctor...

A flock of docs is something totally unheard of. Yes, one might say that you just need to go to the hospital for that but we’re actually talking about “real life” in here. So, the doctors’ schedule is always so complicated that usually people are “on call”, “post call”, “pre call”, “waiting for a call”, or simply, “just finished my duty” status and it’s next to impossible to plan anything in advance with them without a threat of your plan being terminated. Count in anything, be it a birthday party or even a wedding ceremony!, they can surely be the party poopers when they don’t even want to be one.

I do say this with my profound respect and admiration for all the doctors out there but here is just something what you guys should also consider when planning to become a doctor, which is if you aren’t already one. If you are a doctor already or in some other profession, then do think in advance for your kids.

If you’re mumbling something against my judgment of doctors out there, then you naysayers better tell me what’s so good about it? At most times, they’re found complaining about medicine and ranting about medicine, and medicine, and more medicine! If they’re out of stock with their medicine rantathon, then they JUST might drop you a comment or two on how their life sucks and how they have no life and how it could be much better only IF… and how their life has passed by them with a whooshing sound.

Even after so many characteristics of doctors in a flock, they’re still socially accepted by others cuz they find them to be more or less the same as themselves. FYI, countless bickering, tiredness, grumpyness, boring and monotonous conversation are the keywords when googling a doctor. Same applies for medical students in college by the way. If you’re still a naysayer, try living with one and then drop me a comment if you find anything different!

Futuristic anyone?

As I have finally descended to read up on “how to deal with terrorism” mantras, I can safely conclude from my readings at least that it is more of a response to certain acts of states around the world than just implementing “the terrorists’” own beliefs. As per my definition, the term terrorist refers to an individual/firm/organization, possibly a state also, that poses threat to others – be it individuals, firms, organizations, states – in order to see their beliefs into practice or their ‘constructive’ ideas be extracted.

Now, to eliminate these terrorists, some countries – preferably a superpower- take charge of spreading love and peace by striking the states that claim to have terrorists under their surveillance. When none of the states claim to have terrorists sharpening their skills within their own respective borders, without much further ado, the superpower as it usually is in certain situations, may plan to strike any random state that doesn’t fall parallel to that superpower’s foreign relations.

As we see it today, of course with the ‘coincidental’ but opportune threat of terrorism, principally all G8 countries face the threat of getting ransacked in near future. To avoid such chaos, the only freedom-loving superpower habitually decides to assault specific sovereign states in order to make individuals and states coexist peacefully.

We often wonder that how does the future look like following the current pattern? As part of continued “war on terror”, particular sovereign states might get struck only because they want to exercise their autonomy. Peace and tranquility just might prevail due to strict martial law enforcement after the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons. Even after all this commotion, continuous military presence may possibly serve as vinaigrette.

All these pleasant proceedings remain part of our future, possibly part of our lifetimes. Secretary of State Department of the aforementioned superpower is already working closely to formulate plans to make this world a serene suburb (or whatever is left of this world after the Neoconic Empire is done with). An added advantage will be that there will be a central authority that will govern most of the individuals living on this planet to protect us from future terrorist ploys by spying on…I mean, protecting our civil liberties. With further elimination of threats and some sobbing good-byes and good riddances of any “threatening states”, there finally will be PEACE!

It’s quite interesting to see how there lie various definitions of a single word; peace. The one in an elementary school textbook can often be “modestly” different from the one in foreign affairs.

Pakistan in chaos…and mass suffering

My fears have come true and Pakistan is, at last, in chaos. Personally, I have nothing against the cause they are protesting but it’s the way they are protesting. Not just them, but do include lots of other communities and countries on the world map.

Tragic news is circulating all around Pakistani channels and Pakistani newspapers:

Two people were killed and over 60 injured in Peshawar on Wednesday in what may
be called a repeat of mob violence in Lahore a day earlier during protests
against the publication of blasphemous cartoons.

Widespread rioting, looting and arson attacks on international food outlets,
cellular phone companies, banks, stores and a bus company saw Peshawar plunging
into complete chaos.

…and there are many more as you all are well aware. Sadly, ignorance wins once again. I have mentioned it earlier and I would reiterate that HOW in the world is all this hurting that freakin newspaper or the cartoonist? As I understand the whole deal, many of you lot might disagree with me over here, that the cartoonist basically wanted to know what would be achieved; what would be the reaction among the Muslim communities in Denmark. Of course, I have been hearing people believing that this is a totally planned action designed to fire up the sentiments of the religious zealots around the world but the way I see it is by following the pattern:

These cartoons were first published back in September 2005 (the exact date escapes my mind) and it was protested enough to exact a ruling against the cartoonist or the newspaper according to the same newspaper if anyone was following it at that time. Now, for those who believe it’s a planned upshot to animate the fury of the Muslims, this isn’t a far-fetched fantasy. It just might’ve been blown out of proportion for the reincarnation of the clash of ideologies between East and West by some unknown groups.

Anyhow, should we care A BIT as to how it was given rise to the international level? It was a wrong deed and may the person, the cartoonist or whoever involved, learn a lesson from this but aren’t we going out of our bounds and crossing all the limits of civilized individual entities? Understood the fact that European newspapers didn’t show an iota of sympathy either but went on with the aggressiveness by reprinting the cartoons, let’s just look at ourselves also as how we are responding to it. Having said all of that, there is nothing that could have justified the publication of those cartoons. What irks me more than anything else are the re-printings. The Continental Europe and its newspapers are well aware as to how these sorts of provocations are taken in the Muslim Community. They increase the chances of intolerant elements taking advantage of this fury but for some reason, they had to do it in the name of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is an extremely worthy ideal but as an editorial pointed out in The News on Sunday, not something to be “boasted or brandished about”.

In fact, The Times quote here defines the line between freedom of expression and racial or religious hatred: “The Times would, for example, have reservations about printing a cartoon of Christ in a Nazi uniform sketched because sympathisers of Hitler had conducted awful crimes in the name of Christianity.” Jyllands-Posten has already apologized in English and Arabic and that’s the most they could do. They have condemned it as well but a rational individual can’t expect a country to go down on its knees and apologize in front of every offended nation until they allow them a letter of survival in this world. The majority of rational Muslims should accept this apology from the newspaper and move on. The feud of ideology should be over…

…but wait, ignorance still hasn’t played a role, right? So let it grow rampant in the ignorant minds and burn flags and properties all around. Restricting it to Pakistan, people are performing feats of acrobatics in order to protest against the blasphemous cartoons. There has already been an immense property lost already when the earthquake struck the northern areas in October, not to mention the thousands of lives lost too. Taken that it was natural and it was bound to happen and we couldn’t possibly do much about it but what about this? People getting killed, churches and affiliated schools being burned down, dozens of lives being lost, and of course destroying the economy of certain banks and cellular phone companies. Don’t take me wrong here. It’s not about money only; as I am sure everything demolished would've been heavily insured but the credibility of our nation has been distorted (further). Now, that’s a loss. Is this what our people and our government seek for during their everyday tasks? Is this the same country whom so many people donate to all around the world when afflicited with calamity? Are these the same people who were helped internationally during the after-days of earthquake just four months ago when their own government proceedings weren't comprehensive enough? Come on people, if we talk about ridiculing Islam and ridiculing the Muslims, then we are just strengthening their thoughts of us being uncivilized and backward. Our violent protests aren't doing anything to the newspaper itself. It is just another step of becoming a pariah.

Despite the recurring government appeals, mobs of ignorant retards are hell bent on destructing their own country. They must be dealt with an iron hand. But the long term solution is education; change of ideology; change of thoughts; and the courage to take such things in a civilized manner. My heart reaches out to those affected by the protests. May Allah grant them eternal bliss and may their survivors have patience to deal with their losses.

Greetings

Greetings to everyone around the world reading it!

Few months of on and off thinking about my opinions and tons of hours wasted and used in reading others’ blogs, I have finally come up with my own. Nessland is what I lastly decided but I’m sure I can be more creative with that in coming days so I might update it soon. Although I never considered that I will be wasting my time blogging but it was always the case of organizing my thoughts and opinions and presenting them in a…well, a presentable way.

There are always so many things to deal with at a time in this world (at least true for me), that I can hardly form an opinion about everything but hey, whatever I can, will make its way here (hopefully). Now, this blog isn’t meant to be a personal journal but rather a journalistic insight (if one can call it that) on rather superficial but interwoven complex matters from politics to nature or from books to music, if you belong to that category. I am not really in favor of the so-called “depression” people talk about often that news put you in so I certainly will be playing around with lots of that. I don’t mean to say that my thoughts are going to be the finest (you will have to let go of my faulty opinionistic brain at times) but they’ll be honest, I can assure you that. Your comments on touching issues will definitely be the icing on my unbaked cake so please rant on if you feel like it. Although you guys can care less about my personal nattering once in a while :-)
I will have to say that my interests, although varied, spin more around my religion, Islam that is, and my country, Pakistan. Yes, I will be writing a lot about anything and everything but you just might find more stuff on both the aforementioned topics. Lastly, I will leave you to wait and analyze my blogs in upcoming….perhaps hours or perhaps years.

Denmark Boycott, eh?

(Each link opens a different source and must be checked in order to understand the real message in this response)

If some of you need some background on this, here it goes: (others can skip and read the message!)

Apparently, a danish newspaper published 12 cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which in turn, literally, scared the daylights out of the Islamic community of Denmark and caused the outbreak of anger against printing those cartoons since it is totally forbidden to draw the Prophet (pbuh) in any way. The Arab governments, eager to appease the outrage, demanded an apology from the Danish government and some sort of punishment exacted against the newspaper over the cartoons. Danish Prime Minister naturally thought that the delegation is just cracking a joke as Denmark is a country with freedom of speech and where there is freedom of speech, a prime minister has no right to backlash the newspaper, as it was requested in this case. Now, this came as a shock to the delegation who were sure earlier that the Danish prime minister is gonna throw the cartoonist in jail like they do in "other countries". Of course, the next easiest option available for the delegation and their supporters was just one: death threat. And since then, calls to avenge the "honor of the prophet" started to pile up all over the world. To cut the long story short, Jordanian Parliament called for the punishment of the cartoonists; The International Union for Muslim Scholars threated to call for a world-wide boycott of danish products, drafting a website and providing a list of danish products.

This is all going so crazy now, especially when the government of Saudi Arabia alongside imams followed suit. Personally, I think it really is a political drama but more so, the way Saudi Arabian government is trying to play a role of the hero of the Islamic Ummah is just beyond my comprehension. Although people have finally started realizing that it's not all that bad, like this, but a lot of them are still confused. Main reason being that there are tons of emails and more importantly, sms circulating throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia about banning danish products. Check out this one:

"Breaking news: God is great, God is great, this morning the

cartoonist's body was found burned near the daily's headquarters. The government of Denmark is remaining hush hush about the news,

please forward."
(Translated)

This wasn't the first one but something around 166 millionth by the way and more like these are just annoying the crap outta people. And the way they're portraying it is, "(we are) demanding the Muhammad's Ummah would rise up to defend his honor." Now come on, I am in no way, from no angle, saying that what the newspaper did was justified and we should all follow it, neither am I saying that this should be allowed but what I am trying to convey is the so-called "actions" of Arab governments against it do no justice to the sufferers from any perspective. They (arab governments) are just boycotting the wrong people. The people who published those cartoons work in a danish newspaper. They do NOT own danish factories, make danish cheese or toys, or any of those nifty products that they have on that list. Now, unless they're exporting their newspaper to, say Saudi Arabia or Jordan which they are certainly not, they don't get affected at all but danish business does, saudi business does, saudi people do, and moreover the image of Muslim does. For all those who are supporting this boycott, you want to hurt those people who committed this act? I tell you, SUE THEM. Sue the newspaper. Sue them everywhere, for any reason you like, for that matter. Now that should affect them directly. This boycott won't. Not to mention that I love the Prophet (pbuh) and believe in Islamic teachings just as a Muslim is supposed to but boycotting danish products is really not the way to go.

Furthermore, the newspaper apologized and danish envoys in Riyadh have also issued an apology on behalf of the newspaper. People who are totally unrelated have risked their prestige in a country where individualism is held above everything. Now, I don't see any reason for this political drama being overplayed?

This doesn't even seem to be accomplishing anything, to me at least, but just portray the Muslims negatively. As we can see that "we-are-outraged" movement has gone berserk with their speeches and tantrums, it was inevitable that some crazy hotheads decided to issue death threats against the newspaper and the cartoonists. I've yet to see a single christian group get mad at the Rolling Stones for having Kanye West depicting Jesus on their cover, and you know why? because they understand that there is something called free speech and freedom of expression. That it's not always pleasant. That some people will try to provoke a reaction out of you by offending you with something like this. And you know what? Muslims fall for it every single time and then the crazy ones amongst them go all the way and do something stupid. Like the Van Gogh murder in 2004. Remember how good that made us look in Holland? What? You want to go through that whole thing again, and drag us with you for the ride? Thanks but no thanks dude. Our reputation is already bad as it is, and we don't need anymore help sullying it.

A danish boycott will do nothing, the same way the american products boycott did nothing, and any future boycott will do nothing. Let's grow up together (I include myself). Accept other people's opinion even if they disagree with yours, the same way you want them to accept your opinions. Let us be honest with ourselves now. Since we are given the chance, let's all handle this logically and not make it a game of hearsay. Let's not give them back as the same, or to use the honorable words "take revenge", way they acted. Perhaps we have already outdone them but that's another thing because we must get sane now in order to desire sanity around us.
We, as in Muslims, are not the only ones being insane by the way. (I thought I'll mention the other side's doings also just so I won't be blamed to view it just from one side later on.) Apparently, after the boycott, other european private organizations/firms/newspapers threw their support behind the Danish newspaper to give back a reply to us. Just like how we have our reasons to defend the boycott, they have their reasons too: "no religious dogma can impose itself on a democratic and secular society." But, please please please, also look at the way they are dealing with it. (For those who don't want to try the links: European newspapers across Europe have started reprinting the cartoons, even after the danish newspaper apologized. Hence, a French newspaper editor was fired as of Feb. 1 for letting it print.)

Above all, look at the way they're giving it back to us: France Soir printed a newly created cartoon on its front page showing Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy figures sitting on a cloud, with the caption "Don't worry Muhammad, we've all been caricatures here". (Source)
Now, I request you all to please stop spreading such sms, emails, hearsay rumors, uncertain ideologies, for the sake of humanity, for the sake of Muslims, for the sake of Islam. This is by no means a counter-movement to un-ban or un-boycott the danish products but just to warn that how the emails and such are sending negative vibes across to other countries.

Now, I hereby understand that the publication and moreso, the republication of the cartoons in Continental European newspapers is more than just freedom of expression and they've certainly taken things over the board. Muslim governments, to put it generally, are demanding an apology directly from Danish government to re-establish the diplomatic relations between them. Let's see how far it goes...