Terrorism is certainly not a Muslim monopoly

 

‘by SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR

”All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims..” This comment, frequently heard after the Mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly. The facts are very different.

First, there is nothing new about terrorism. In 1881, anarchists killed the Russian Tsar Alexander II and 21 bystanders. In 1901, anarchists killed US President McKinley as well as King Humbert I of Italy . World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria . These terrorist attacks were not Muslim.
Terrorism is generally defined as the killing of civilians for political reasons. Going by this definition, the British Raj referred to Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad and many other Indian freedom fighters as terrorists. These were Hindu and Sikh rather than Muslim.
Guerrilla fighters from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro killed civilians during their revolutionary campaigns. They too were called terrorists until they triumphed. Nothing Muslim about them
In Palestine , after World War II, Jewish groups (the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) fought for the creation of a Jewish state, bombing hotels and installations and killing civilians. The British, who then governed Palestine , rightly called these Jewish groups terrorists. Many of these terrorists later became leaders of independent Israel – Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon. Ironically, these former terrorists then lambasted terrorism, applying this label only to Arabs fighting for the very same nationhood that the Jews had fought for earlier.

In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang killed dozens, including the head of Treuhand, the German privatization agency. In Italy , the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, former prime minister.
The Japanese Red Army was an Asian version of this. Japan was also the home of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist cult that tried to kill thousands in the Tokyo metro system using nerve gas in 1995.
In Europe , the Irish Republican Army has been a Catholic terrorist organization for almost a century. Spain and France face a terrorist challenge from ETA, the Basque terrorist organization.

Africa is ravaged by so much civil war and internal strife that few people even bother to check which groups can be labeled terrorist. They stretch across the continent. Possibly the most notorious is the
Lord’s Salvation Army in Uganda , a Christian outfit that uses children as warriors. While the West amplifies the plight Muslim Darfour region in the Sudan , the Western media has rellatively ignored this Christian sponsored conflict next door in Uganda and the Eastern Congo  that has done horrendous crimes against women and children.

Tamil Tigers have long constituted one of the most vicious and formidable terrorist groups in the world. They were the first to train children as terrorists. They happen to be Hindus. Suicide bombing is widely associated with Muslim Palestinians and Iraqis, but the Tamil Tigers were the first to use this tactic on a large scale and surprisingly more suicide bombings have been associated with Tiger (400+ in 2003-2007) than all bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. One such suicide bomber assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

In India , the militants in Kashmir are Muslim. But they are only one of several militant groups. The Punjab militants, led by Bhindranwale, were Sikhs. The United Liberation Front of Assam is a Hindu terrorist group that targets Muslims rather than the other way round. Tripura has witnessed the rise and fall of several terrorist groups, and so have Bodo strongholds in Assam . Christian Mizos mounted an insurrection for decades, and Christian Nagas are still heading militant groups.

But most important of all are the Maoist terrorist groups that now exist in no less than 150 out of India ‘s 600 districts. They have attacked police stations, and killed and razed entire villages that oppose them. These are secular terrorists (like the Baader Meinhof Gang or Red Brigades). In terms of membership and area controlled, secular terrorists are far ahead of Muslim terrorists.

In sum, terrorism is certainly not a Muslim monopoly. There are or have been terrorist groups among Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and even Buddhists. Secular terrorists (anarchists, Maoists) have been the biggest killers in India .
Why then is there such a widespread impression that most or all terrorist groups are Muslim? I see two reasons. First, the Indian elite keenly and blindly follows the western media (they are the Brown British of the British Raj today, used to eating Roti and Roast Beef and BigMacs), and the West feels under attack from Islamic groups.

Catholic Irish terrorists have killed far more people in Britain than Muslims, yet the subway bombings in London and Madrid are what Europeans remember today. The Baader Meinhof Gang, IRA and Red Brigades no longer pose much of a threat, but after 9/11 Americans and Europeans fear that they could be hit anywhere anytime. So they focus attention on Islamic militancy. They pay little notice to other forms of terrorism in Africa, Sri Lanka or India : these pose no threat to the West.
Within India , Maoists pose a far greater threat than Muslim militants in 150 districts, one-third of India ‘s area. But major cities feel threatened only by Muslim groups. So the national elite and media focus overwhelmingly on Muslim terrorism. The elite are hardly aware that this is an elite phenomenon.

The real threat to India today are the Maouist groups who are getting bigger in numbers, exponentially, now being joined also by poor Muslims youth especially in South India.

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they break your bones, then you win"  Mahatma Gandh

Terrorism is not a new phenomenon of the last few decades. It just has acquired a newer flavour.

It was there when man lived in caves, to the Middle Ages, to the classical Egyptian/Greek/Roman empires, to the European colonial era, to communist era, to the Nazis, to apartheid era, and today.

When we talk about terrorism it is not only by a group of individuals but also the states.

Since mankind started to live in communities it found a need to establish law and order in order to provide equity amongst the individuals sharing common resources. When this social order establishes injustices and ignores the inherent rights of others and disenfranchises the weak, then there are always a few who would take the law into their own hands without the consent of the community because the community has been rendered impotent by the greed of the most powerful.

When such disenfranchised groups get organized, both the powerful elite and the group of angry individuals have a showdown.

This is when both the parties lose their moral values of human decency on the pretext that "the end justifies the means" and this is when the innocent civilians get caught in the fight as the so called "co-lateral damage".

This carnage of the civilians in their midst continues until the injustices are addressed by the reasonable and thinking people and communities of the world.

For that reason the root of the post war resurgence in terrorism, whether one likes it or not, started and happens to be the plight of the six million Palestinians (both 15% Christians and 85% Muslims) who have been made homeless and humiliated for the last six decades or more and the unconditional support given to the state of Israel by some of the guilt ridden leadership in Europe, US and in the West, because of Europe’s Nazi past.

The fact that these "terrorists" are born in the Muslims homes is incidental because Palestine has evoked natural sympathies from Muslims youth of the world in the beginning but now has evoked the same sympathies (the Gaza Flotilla)  from the previously indifferent youth of the West too who were not only brought up in Christian homes but also in the Jewish homes too.

Remember that apartheid South Africa collapsed not only when the disenfranchised poor black communities were marching and protesting on the streets but when the youth of the world started marching with them in their own cities of the world in the seventies and eighties.

Also, more importantly, apartheid regime collapsed because the children of the white parents who supported apartheid in S Africa also started questioning their parents’ crimes against humanity such that it not only bankrupted South Africa   but also  began to tear apart their white family structure too.

World Water Day

Consider our own situation in Pakistan!

March 22nd, is recognized by the United Nations Water Group as "World Water Day", this year’s theme being "Clean Water for a Healthy World". Although we live on a water-covered planet, only 1% of the world’s water is available for human use, the rest locked away in oceans, ice, and the atmosphere. The National Geographic Society feels so strongly about the issues around fresh water that they are distributing an interactive version of their April, 2010 magazine for download – free until April 2nd – and will be exhibiting images from the series at the Annenberg Space for photography. National Geographic was also kind enough to share 15 of their images below, in a collection with other photos from news agencies and NASA – all of water, here at home – Earth. (43 photos total)

The Maya believed natural wells, such as the Xkeken cenote in Mexico’s Yucatan, led to the underworld. (John Stanmeyer, VII, © National Geographic)

2

A cross hewn for Epiphany in the ice of Maine’s Kennebec River by parishioners of St. Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the baptism of Christ. The water from the carving will bless the church. (John Stanmeyer, VII, © National Geographic) #

3

India’s holiest river, the Ganges, is scribbled with light from floating oil lamps during the Ganga Dussehra festival in Haridwar. Hindus near death often bathe in the river; some are later cremated beside it and have their ashes scattered on its waters. (John Stanmeyer, VII, © National Geographic) #

4

Jared Otieno, a worker with the Kenyan Ministry of environment and mineral resources, sprinkles water cupped in his hand as he and other workers who helped clean two-and-a-half miles of the Nairobi river basin in Nairobi greet foreign United Nations visitors to the river basin site on March 21, 2010. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images) #

5

A photograph of sunlight reflected by waterways across the central United States, as seen from the International Space Station in November of 2003. The scene looks southwest from above Lake Michigan across the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, towards Texas near the horizon. At least two of the smaller lakes at bottom, near the Illinois River, are cooling ponds for nuclear power stations. (NASA/JSC) #

6

Floating on dreams and whispers, girls from a West Bank village cool off in the salt-laden waters of the Dead Sea. With its main tributary, the Jordan, at less than a tenth of its former volume, the inland sea has dropped some 70 feet since 1978. (Paolo Pellegrin, Magnum © National Geographic) #

7

After six years of drought, measuring sticks are useless at the Ziglab Dam in Jordan, built to catch water flowing west into the Jordan River for irrigation. Its reservoir has shrunk to a fifth of capacity and hasn’t filled since 2003, forcing Jordan to ration water. (Paolo Pellegrin, Magnum © National Geographic) #

8

A man swims in a pool inside a condominium in Singapore March 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Nicky Loh) #

9

A boy swims in the murky waters of Manila Bay March 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo) #

10

Mount Everest’s East Rongbuk Glacier has lost some 350 vertical feet of ice between August 1921 and October 2008. (David Breashears, © National Geographic) #

11

In Iceland the bountiful Kolgrima River inscribes the earth on its seaward path. (Hans Strand, © National Geographic) #

12

A swan swims at Lake Toepper (Toeppersee) in the western German city of Duisburg on March 11, 2010. (Jens Schlueter/AFP/Getty Images) #

13

Balancing on a slippery makeshift ladder, women pass precious gallons hand to hand up a well nine people deep in the Marsabit region of northern Kenya. After the water reaches the surface, the women will compete for it with thirsty livestock. (Lynn Johnson, © National Geographic) #

14

Gabra women in northern Kenya spend up to five hours a day carrying heavy jerry cans filled with murky water. A lingering drought has pushed this already arid region to a water crisis. (Lynn Johnson, © National Geographic) #

15

Homes are surrounded by flood waters from the swollen Red River, Sunday, March 21, 2010, south of Fargo, North Dakota. The river crested at Fargo today at about 37 feet, nearly four feet short of last year’s record crest of nearly 41 feet. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) #

16

Flood water drains from a ditch along Interstate 29 March 21, 2010 south of Fargo, North Dakota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #

17

At up to six feet long, the Chinese giant salamander is the world’s largest. It secretes a slippery, foul-smelling mucus when harassed, but that doesn’t keep people from eating it and using it in folk medicines. (Joel Sartore, © National Geographic) #

18

Tracking the return of a native species to Tennessee’s Abrams Creek, snorkeling scientists search under flat rocks for the smoky madtom – a two-inch catfish. (Joel Sartore, © National Geographic) #

19

Upsala Glacier as seen from the International Space Station in February of 2010. Upsala is a large valley glacier in Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park. Google Map. (NASA/JSC) #

20

Villagers and donkeys near Marsabit, Kenya, lean into a trough at the top of a "singing well" – so called because the people who form bucket brigades to bring the water up from deep underground sing as they work. Each visitor is allowed to fill only one large jerry can a day – and the women usually have to wait until after the animals have drunk their fill. (Lynn Johnson © National Geographic) #

21

This photo released on February 26, 2010 from the Australian Antarctic Division shows the the Mertz Glacier Tongue, a 160-kilometer spit of floating ice protruding into the Southern Ocean from East Antarctica, in 2007. Researchers said on February 25, 2010 that the iceberg the size of Luxembourg – or some 2,550 square kilometres (985 square miles) in size – knocked loose from the Antarctic continent earlier this month and could disrupt the ocean currents driving weather patterns around the globe. (B. LEGRESY/AFP/Getty Images) #

22

Dry conditions produce cracked earth at a reservoir in Shilin county, Yunnan province, China, on Thursday, March 4, 2010. Yunnan is experiencing its worst drought in more than 60 years. (Ariana Lindquist/Bloomberg) #

23

Southern California draws much of its water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which was diked and divided into farms more than a century ago. Many of the aging levees are at risk of failure. (© Edward Burtynsky, National Geographic) #

24

Once the city’s main water source, the Los Angeles River is now a concrete channel fed by storm drains. City residents rely on water piped in from hundreds of miles away. (© Edward Burtynsky, National Geographic) #

25

A Chinese softball player hits a ball during a sandstorm in Beijing on March 20, 2010. Beijingers woke up to find the Chinese capital blanketed in yellow dust, as a sandstorm caused by a severe drought in the north and in Mongolia swept into the city. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #

26

A man drinks from a pipe March 18, 2010 in the streets of quake-struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images) #

27

A dead fish is seen floating in a polluted river on the outskirts of Yingtan, Jiangxi province March 20, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer) #

28

Norwood Airport in Norwood, Massachusetts showed the impact of recent flooding on March 16, 2010 as crews undertook cleanup operations across the state. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff) #

29

A man delivers water from a water tank in shanty town Pamplona at Villa Maria Del Triunfo, near Peru’s capital Lima, March 20, 2010. Working toilets and clean drinking water are unattainable luxuries for a third of the Peru’s city dwellers and two-thirds of its rural population, one of the world’s highest levels for a middle-income country that boasts a fast-growing economy, huge investor interest and ample Andean water resources. (REUTERS/Mariana Bazo) #

30

A picture taken on February 10, 2010 shows the Churchill dam as it is 17 percent full in the Kareedouw region, West of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The green pitch at Port Elizabeth’s World Cup stadium has become an island in a sea of brown, exempt from restrictions imposed due to a drought that has scorched the land outside. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images) #

31

Mahendra Kumar surfaces to catch his breath as he dives into a polluted section of the River Yamuna to scavenge for ornaments and coins left by Hindu rituals at the river bank, in New Delhi, India, Monday, March 22, 2010. Officials say factories are ignoring regulations and dumping untreated sewage and industrial pollution, turning toxic the river that gives the capital much of its drinking water. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan) #

32

A villager bathes under a hose pipe used for the irrigation of rice field, as his son, left, looks on, on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, Monday, March 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) #

33

A floating restaurant is stranded in a branch of the Yangtze River in Chongqing Municipality, March 21, 2010. A severe drought across a large swath of southwest China is now affecting more than 50 million people, and forecasters see no signs of it abating in the short term, state media said on Friday. (REUTERS/Stringer) #

34

Pere David’s deer, or milu, walk in water at the Yangtze River Swan Islet Pere David’s Deer Nature Reserve on April 22, 2008 in Shishou of Hubei Province, China. The nature reserve, a wetland covering an area of about 69 square kilometers, contains over 1,000 Pere David’s deer, the largest wild population of the animal in the world. (China Photos/Getty Images) #

35

4,000 baby bottles containing polluted water stand on the Bundesplatz in Bern, Switzerland, Monday, March 22. 2010. The action was organized by the Swiss association for International Cooperation Helvetas to highlight the UN’s World Water Day. (AP Photo/Keystone/Peter Klaunzer) #

36

A fisherman paddles his canoe through dead fish along Manaquiri River, a tributary of the Amazon, near the city of Manaquiri, November 28, 2009. The world’s biggest rainforest is suffering from seasonal drought, killing tons of fish. (REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker) #

37

A section of Lake Nasser in Egypt, a massive reservoir behind the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River, seen from the International Space Station in January of 2010. The lake is capable of storing some 157 cubic kilometers (37.5 cubic miles) of fresh water. Google Map. (NASA/JSC) #

38

Chinese villagers draw water from a 158-year-old well in Caojiazhuang village, on the outskirts of Guiyang, southwestern China’s Guizhou province on March 20, 2010. Millions of people face drinking water shortages in southwestern China because of a once-a-century drought that has dried up rivers and threatens vast farmlands in Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan provinces, the Guangxi region, and the mega-city of Chongqing for months, with rainfall 60 percent below normal since September. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #

39

Severed from the edge of Antarctica, this iceberg might float for years as it melts and releases its store of fresh water into the sea. The water molecules will eventually evaporate, condense, and recycle back to Earth as precipitation. (Camille Seaman, © National Geographic) #

40

Hoses used to supply residences with water are seen hanging across a street at the Penjaringan subdistrict in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 22, 2010. Residents in the area say that they have had to construct makeshift water supplies for their homes by attaching hoses to pumps bought with their own money, as the government has yet to repair the original water supply which was damaged. (REUTERS/Beawiharta) #

41

An Indian village boy runs through a parched field on World Water Day in Berhampur, Orissa state, India, Monday, March 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout) #

42

A Balinese couple kiss while the crowd pours water over them during the traditional kissing festival called "Omed-Omedan" in Denpasar on the resort island of Bali on March 17, 2010. The annual ritual is held one day after the Hindu New Year called "Nyepi" in Bali, also celebrated as the "Day of Silence" where local young men and women gather in groups on a main road after prayer at the temple. The men compete against each other to kiss the girl while other douse the couple with water while they embrace in a kiss. (SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images) #

43

A drop of water falls from a melting piece of ice on Argentina’s Perito Moreno glacier near the city of El Calafate, in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, December 16, 2009. (REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci)

A pledge to unite

— Ayesha Sohail, DAWN Young World

Saturday, 20 Mar, 2010

On the morning of March 23 — Pakistan Resolution Day — it’s important to think about who we are and what we want to be. We should think about the whole journey before March 23, 1940, and after that till August 14, 1947, during which our freedom fighters suffered a lot and gave many sacrifices to get a free homeland.

But today, March 23rd — the day when our brave fighters reached an important milestone in the journey of their struggle — is of no importance for the present day young generation. It is just another holiday for them. It is shameful to acknowledge that today we have lost our identity and culture — in fact we feel ashamed in accepting who we are — and we proudly follow other cultures and traditions. We, instead of following the footprints of our forefathers, are ruining the image of our homeland which was obtained after lots of sacrifices.

Pakistan Day reminds us of the fact that all Muslims are equal and they can’t be discriminated due to any factor such as race, colour and ethnicity. But today we are Sindhis, Punjabis, Balochis, Pathans, Muhajirs; today we are the elite class, middle and lower class; today we are Karachiites, Lahories and what not. We have lost that identity which was the founding stone for this country and have indulged in all sorts of discriminations.

God has made all of us equal and we are blessed with an independent homeland which, despite all internal and external threats, has been surviving for years so now is the time to get up and realise our responsibilities towards our country — let’s become united! Unity is the real strength and being united means being successful. If we remain divided on the basis of colour, language or socio-economic factors, we can never be a successful nation.

We have to become united for prosperity and a better future. We have to change the world we live in. As educated citizens of our country, we have to shape the future of Pakistan. Let us stop blaming each other and pledge that we will try to be better people by keeping aside our differences.

We have gained much — one of the best cricket teams in the world, one of the most profitable music industries in Asia and the strongest military power in the Muslim world. So on this 23rd March, be proud a Pakistani and discard all discriminating factors.

As Quaid-e-Azam said: “If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make.”

Pakistan Day special: Creative celebrations

By Saira Owais Adil
Saturday, 20 Mar, 2010 DAWN Young World

Monotonous, routine celebrations are held all over the country to mark the Pakistan Resolution Day on March 23. The schools, media and government organisations all follow strictly unchanged programmes. School children are dressed up in neat uniforms, polished shoes and appear tidy to perform on the same national songs as they have been doing for years.
March 23 is actually the day when the meaning of independence for the Muslims of the Subcontinent was clearly laid out to the world. Now after 70 years of the event, we, the young generation, today need our elders’ help in comprehending the ‘national’ thought that led to the whole process of independence! Children can only be expected to be ‘patriotic’ when they understand the meaning of ‘patriotism’.

Let’s make a different start this time and instead of performing at the school half-heartedly or bunking the functions altogether, try to give your school authorities some exciting suggestions. Ask your school head or teacher to organise different activities with the objective of creating a better understanding of the term “independence”.
Do something creative. Paint your own Pakistan – the way you think a perfect Pakistan would look like. Draw and paint what you like about your country and how you would like things to be. If you are better at words than the brush, write how you want things to be, portraying a ‘better Pakistan’ in your own way!
How about making a huge map of Pakistan for your class or to be displayed anywhere else in the school, and decorate it with smiles, colours and gestures of love – all that we are losing fast with each passing day.

And just mounting the national flag and placing the small flags on strings round the classroom is not enough. A flag drawing competition would be more exciting and full of fun. Rather than just painting and colouring the flag on a paper, you can try making it with different materials. Of course you can’t change its colour or design, just use various textures and materials, coloured green and white, to lend a beautiful touch to our national flag.

Instead of merely reciting the toughest of the national songs, request your teacher to make you understand what the poet is actually trying to say. In a casual set up, not that of the typical classroom teaching style, lectures given to make students become aware of the meaning of the different national songs, some information about the poet and the occasion when it was first written would go a long way in making everyone realise the significance of the words and remember it for a long time to come. By becoming aware of the true meaning of the words that are being sung, it will bring out feelings of national pride and patriotism and make any performance more powerful.

A competition of short poems and national songs can also be held where participants would have to write national songs or poems. This can also be done as a class exercise where everyone just pens down what is in their hearts about their beloved country.

Make posters, badges and cards in which you present your own idea of what being a citizen of a free nation means to you and share it with your friends and teachers. If you are going out somewhere with your friends or family to on this national holiday, order a combination of pistachio and vanilla flavours in ice cream. Now that’s a pretty patriotic combination!
This is our country and we all feel proud of it. So why not fuel up your passion and come up with imaginative ways to celebrate this day and pledge to do what we can to make it a better place to live.

Promises! Promises!

Mrs. Machiavelli & the Political Dam

by Khurshid Anwer

Nation, Mar 18, page 14: Speaking at a seminar on Water Issues, Ghulam Mustafa Khar has repeated most of what he had said in an interview to the Jang newspaper back in April 1997.

“Prime minister Benazir Bhutto had expressed her willingness to construct Kalabagh dam and had directed all the chief ministers to build consensus for taking up the project”.

“The prime minister in the presence of the coalition partners had acknowledged the importance of Kalabagh dam, saying it was a ‘must’ for the progress of the country”.

“She used to get furious whenever I made statements in favour of Kalabagh dam, but later she gathered reports from other independent sources which convinced her that it was in the crucial interest of the country”.

“In the presence of all the chief ministers, including Abdullah Shah, Aftab Sherpao, Zulfikar Magsi, Arif Nikai, Naseer Ullah Babar and Hamid Nasir Chatha, she said that I was right in supporting to build the dam”.

“Naseer Ullah Babar said that she had herself directed them to opposes Kalabagh dam, so how could he now mould the opinion of the masses in favour of the dam”.

“She explained that she had asked them to oppose the dam when Zia-ul-Haq had raised the issue and she could not support the dictator who had killed her father. But now fresh reports about the project had convinced her and the chief ministers should start preparing the ground for it”.

(revenge was more important to her than national interest)

“When Naseer Ullah Babar still opposed it she said all those who would oppose the dam would be against the interest of the country”.

Ghulam Mustafa Khar concluded:

“We have no other source of water and must utilize the water of Indus river by building Kalabagh dam otherwise there will be skeletons from Khyber to Karachi”.

“Let me dispel the notion that Kalabagh dam was vital for Punjab only, it is equally beneficial for Sindh”.

“Kalabagh dam is more important than Kashmir or the nuclear bomb, we can use the bomb only if we are still alive”.

Since 1997 I must have quoted Khar in my letters more than fifty times without getting any rebuttal from Benazir’s legal eagles. Now that khar has gone public again let the people named above confirm or deny what he has said.

Of course as soon as she was out of power she started opposing the dam again because then it became Nawaz’s dam.

The evil that people do lingers on, the good is often interred with their bones.

Power of Money,

By Adam Khoo
( Singapore ‘s youngest millionaire at 26 yrs.)

Some of you may already know that I travel around the region pretty frequently, having to visit and conduct seminars at my offices in Malaysia , Indonesia , Thailand and Suzhou ( China ). I am in the airport almost every other week so I get to bump into many people who have attended my seminars or have read my books.
Recently, someone came up to me on a plane to Kuala Lumpur and looked rather shocked. He asked, ‘How come a millionaire like you is traveling economy?’  My reply was, ‘That’s why I am a millionaire. ‘ He still looked pretty confused.

This again confirms that greatest lie ever told about wealth (which I wrote about in my latest book ‘Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires’) Many people have been brainwashed to think that millionaires have to wear Gucci, Hugo Boss, Rolex, and sit on first class in air travel. This is why so  many people never become rich because the moment that earn more money, they think that it is only natural that they spend more, putting them back to square one.
The truth is that most self-made millionaires are frugal and only spend on what is necessary and of value. That is why they are able to accumulate and multiply their wealth so much faster.

Over the last 7 years, I have saved about 80% of my income while today I save only about 60% (because I have my wife, mother in law, 2 maids, 2 kids, etc. to support).  Still, it is way above most people who save 10% of their income (if they are lucky).
I refuse to buy a first class ticket or to buy a $300 shirt because I think that it is a complete waste of money. However, I happily pay $1,300 to send my 2-year old daughter to Julia Gabriel Speech and Drama without thinking twice.

When I joined the YEO (Young Entrepreneur’s Orgn)a few years back (YEO) is an exclusive club open to those who are under 40 and make over $1m a year in their own business) I discovered that those who were self-made thought like me.  Many of them with net worth well over $5m,travelled economy class and some even drove Toyota ‘s and Nissans,not Audis, Mercedes’s, BMWs.

I noticed that it was only those who never had to work hard to build their own wealth (there were also a few ministers’ and tycoons’ sons in the club) who spent like there was no tomorrow. Somehow, when you did not have to build everything from scratch, you do not really value money. This is precisely the reason why a family’s wealth (no matter how much) rarely lasts past the third generation
Thank God my rich dad foresaw this terrible possibility and refused to give me a cent to start my business.

Then some people ask me, ‘What is the point in making so much money if you don’t enjoy it?’ The thing is that I don’t really find happiness in buying branded clothes, jewellery or sitting first class.  Even if buying something makes me happy it is only for a while, it does not last.
Material happiness never lasts, it just gives you a quick fix. After a while you feel lousy again and have to buy the next thing which you think will make you happy. I always think that if you need material things to make you happy, then you live a pretty sad and unfulfilled life..

Instead, what makes me happy is when I see my children laughing and playing and learning so fast. What makes me happy is when I see my companies and trainers reaching more and more people every year in so many more countries.
What makes me really happy is when I read all the emails about how my books and seminars have touched and inspired someone’s life.
What makes me really happy is reading all your wonderful posts about how this blog is inspiring you. This happiness makes me feel really good for a long time, much much more than what a Rolex would do for me.

I think the point I want to put across is that happiness must come from doing your life’s work (be it teaching, building homes, designing, trading, winning tournaments etc.) and the money that comes is only a by-product. If you hate what you are doing and rely on the money you earn to make you happy by buying stuff, then I think that you are living a meaningless life. Do give it a serious thought won’t you?

Seminar on Water Crisis and its solutions Mar 10

by Khurshid Anwer

 

Organised by the ‘Insan Welfare Society of Pakistan at the PC Lahore.

Sardar Arif Rasheed, former Minister for Irrigation, presided.

(notes within brackets are mine)

Commissioner on Indus Water Treaty Syed Jamaat Ali Shah stressed the need of constructing maximum dams and reservoirs in the country in order to save water and resolve water issues.

(this is also essential for increasing the meager 30 day contingency reserves which puts us at the mercy of India).

He said due to unavailability of sufficient number of dams and reservoirs not less than 26 million acre of water is being wasted every year.

(the Indus delta needs only 4.32 maf per annum, the rest is being wasted. This amount has to be stored in dams and a monthly dose of 0.36 released for year round protection of the delta)

The capacity of present reservoirs and dams is insufficient as well because silt was decreasing their storage capacity.

Construction of dams and reservoirs in the country have become a political issue and it was the main obligation of the governments to construct maximum number of dam in order to save water not only for the sake of producing energy but also saving agriculture sector of the country, which is on decline due to shortage of water.

Unfortunately, the construction of water reservoirs and dams particularly the construction of Kalabagh Dam could not be started due to unstable democratic set up in the country while the politicians used the construction of Kalabagh dam for their political motives only, he added.

change of governments also affect the running policies. However, technical persons are performing their duties in this regard properly but usually influenced by the political figures.

(I had said in my speech that there was no coherent national policy on a serious issue like water, and every government goes by its own whims)

All, including politicians and technocrats are to be blamed for the construction of Baglihar Dam on Chanab River as they did not initiate timely action.

Although the Indus water Treaty was not a happy marriage but we own this treaty because Tarbela and Mangla Dams were constructed under this Treaty.

(even if IWT was a gun-shot wedding, what are we achieving by criticizing it while India takes full advantage of it)

Indus Water Treaty did not restrict any party regarding number of construction of dams but the thing to see is whether negotiations regarding the articles of Indus Water Treaty are according to the wanted spirit of treaty or not otherwise we would have to make a think tank.

(rather late in the day)

Negotiations with India are important instead of going in UNO or International Court of Arbitration because ICA would ask us to negotiate with India before contacting the court.

He suggested that Marala must be linked with Mangla Dam in order to resolve the issue of water shortfall in Mangla, which although would be in violation of Indus Water Treaty.

(this idea was forcefully floated by Sardar Arif Rashid who considered it a defence requirement)

We have in fact weakened our case by saying that we are wasting run of water, he added.

(we are allowing around 20 maf to run to sea which is allowing India to store that water).

He concluded that agriculture sector is suffering badly for short of 20 to 25 maf water. Excessive pumping from the under ground is causing the sub soil water level to fall rapidly.

(a house under construction nearby had drilled for water to more than a 100 feet, this used to be 30 feet)

The news item informs that Sardar Arif Rashid; Amna Ulfat MPA; Sajida Riaz – Speaker Distrct Kasur; Engineer Khurshid Anwer’; Engineer Mazhar Ali; Ashraf Ijaz Gil – PPP leader; Industrialist Suhail Lashari and Mian Tariq Aziz also spoke.

Footnote: my notes for the speech are reproduced below, but due to paucity of time, only about a third of the salient points could be touched upon).

 

We are our worst enemy.

Through our ignorance we have politicized Kalabagh dam and earlier had done the same with the Indus Water Treaty.

We keep saying Ayub Khan and Punjab sold our rivers. When in fact Liaquat Ali Khan was the prime minister

India stopped water in our canals in September 1947 at the time of wheat sowing. The Quaid sent a delegation to India which with great difficulty got India to reopen the canals against heavy payment.

India’s intentions were very clear. It wanted to provoke Pakistan to go for war and for India to undo partition, their avowed aim the time.

Could Pakistan have gone to war in 1947 with India withholding its share of State Bank funds, also its share of military hardware.

The water was again stopped on Apr 01, 1948. Thereafter water was released again on payment under the Inter Dominion Accord of 1948, pending further negotiations.. 

When all negotiations failed, both parties went to the World Bank in 1954. India laid down a precondition that World Bank would not be a mediator but only a facilitator. Talks were held in Washington from 1955 to 1957. 

World Bank proposed that Ravi, Sutlej and Beas be given to India and dams and canals on the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab would make up the loss of water to Pakistan.

Pakistan did not agree and insisted on a share in the eastern rivers.

Ayub Khan saw that the stalemate could not go on for ever with Pakistan buying water for its ever increasing needs. He saw no hope for a better agreement because of the collusion between India and the World Bank.

No agreement with India has ever been to our satisfaction. Neither the partition of the sub continent, nor the division of Punjab.

India, through better diplomacy, always joins hands with the power brokers to outsmart Pakistan.

On partition it was the Nehru-Mountbatten collusion.

On divison of Punjab it was the Nehru-Mountbatten-Radcliffe collusion.

On the Indus Water Treaty it was the India-World Bank collusion.

No treaties or agreements are ever perfect. Instead of accepting the ground realities we keep criticising the Treaty.

The Treaty allows for mutual inspection but we did not  take timely and firm notice of the construction of Baglihar dam in 1999 because of our faulty India/Kashmir policy.

We went too late for arbitration, again because of our faulty India/Kashmir policy.

Here again India achieved diplomatic success. This is not the fault of the Treaty but our own fault.

We must realize that India has possession of our rivers, and possession is nine tenth of law.

As such the Indian hydropower stations on our rivers should not affect river flows if their reservoirs are topped up only during periods of surplus river flows.

But if the filling of the many reservoirs is started simultaneously when river flows are low, this can create serious water shortage for us.

However, the Treaty is also protecting us by stopping India from building mega dams on our rivers.

Instead of beating the drum, We should be paying attention how to get the maximum benefit from the Treaty and how to avoid any adverse fall out of the Treaty.

India on the other hand is taking full advantage of the Treaty and gaining the upper hand.

While we must engage India fully on what it is doing on our rivers, we must also see what we can do on our side to counter India’s water aggression.

We have only 30 days (India 120) contingency reserves because we are storing only 9 percent of our river waters (India 33 percent).

Water availability per person, per annum has reduced from a high of 5000 cubic meters to a low of 1100 cu m, barely above 1000 cu m which will make Pakistan water-scarce.

Pakistan is at the 26^th position among Asian countries as far as water availability is concerned.

We must increase our contingency reserve to counter India’s moves on our rivers.

If we don’t build four mega dams, starting now, by 2020, we will have no surplus water at all.

But we have made dams also controversial. We say dams stop river flow and deplete the river.

When in fact Mangla dam was built to make up for the water lost to India.

Canal supplies increased from the pre-Mangla 83 million acre feet to 103 maf post-Tarbela. Sindh got an additional 6 maf.

Kalabagh dam will add another 6 maf to canal supplies of which Sindh will get 2.2 maf.

The flow in the Indus will increase and not decrease because of Kalabagh dam.

The canals at Kalabagh dam will take only the surplus flood water stored in the reservoir and not from the river.

It is at the barrages which have no storage, that canals take water directly from the river.

There are thirteen big canals at Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages which deplete the Indus river.

To counter the fear that Punjab would deprive Sindh of its due share in Kalabagh dam because of its location was dealt with under the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991.

River water distribution was taken away from Wapda and entrusted to a new federal body IRSA.

Provinces can only raise ten day indents for their water requirement to IRSA.

Punjab has no direct control over supplies to its canals.

A monitoring team of engineers from the Sindh irrigation department was deputed on major head works of Punjab.

They are in daily communication with their head office and have not reported any water misappropriation to date.

The canals at Kalabagh dam will also come under their jurisdiction.

Without the left bank canal at Kalabagh dam, north Punjab will not get any water from the Indus from any future dam.

With Mangla dam silting up progressively, two thirds of north Punjab will revert from irrigated to barani.

Resulting in 50 percent loss in national food production.

Under the Accord, Sindh’s share was increased by decreasing Punjab’s share despite the vast difference in area under cultivation and the population.

Both will get 37 percent of the 6 maf water stored at Kalabagh dam.

Sindh will get all these benefits without the displacement of even one person and the loss of even one care of land.

Similarly the apprehensions of NWFP are not based on facts

Nowshera will be 25 feet above and 10 miles away from the Kalabagh dam reservoir.

The Kalabagh dam reservoir even at maximum storage capacity will remain below the Attock bridge, hence will not create back flow in the Kabul river, nor will deposit any silt there.

The drainage from the Mardan Scarp and from the Peshawar valley will remain unaffected.

The high water level marks on buildings of Nowshera were as a result of a faulty foreign consultants report. A later three-dimensional hydraulic model by Irrigation Research Institute at Nandipur set the record straight.

The right bank canal at Kalabagh dam will provide the only link between the Indus and NWFP. Otherwise NWFP will not get any water from any future dam on the Indus.

More people will be displaced in Punjab than in NWFP. Also more land will be lost in Punjab.

This has to be equated with the crores of people who will benefit from the power and water from the dam.

Also with the millions of acres that will come under cultivation.

Small dams are no substitute for mega dams. They only serve the locality in which they are built.

Conservation of water and better irrigation techniques are a must. Brick lining of canals will definitely save water  but will not store it for later use. 

Lining of canals will be counter productive in Punjab which gets of 40 percent of its irrigation supplies from the ground water.

The ground water also acts as a reservoir from which water can be pumped out during the lean periods.

For this reason Sindh needs Kalabagh dam more than Punjab.

Similarly the reservoirs at Mangla and Tarbela store water during the surplus Kharif period and make it available during the lean Rabi period.

Bhasha dam will take at least 15 years (Kalabagh dam 6 years) by which time the capacity for storage and generation at Mangla and Tarbela dams will have reduced considerably.

Bhasha dam will rely totally on snow melt from the glaciers.

Kalabagh dam will have five big rivers flowing into it – Kabul, Swat, Chitral, Haro and Sohan. Also a major part of the 30 maf monsoon flows.

100,000 cusecs water is flowing in the Indus past the Kalabagh dam site without being utilized for storage or generation.

Making Indus the only river having surplus flows.

With the loss of three rivers to India, now the whole country has to subsist on the three remaining rivers

Link canals are apart of the Replacement Plan of the Indus Water Treaty for transferring water from the western rivers to the canals previously serviced by the eastern rivers.

Chashma-Jhelum link can is feeding the canals in upper south Punjab, and the Taunsa-Panjnad link canal is feeding the canals in lower south Punjab,

Without these link canal the whole of south Punjab will turn barani causing loss of production and loss of jobs.

Since the flow in the Indus will increase because of Kalabagh dam, it will have no adverse effect on the Indus delta.

At present about 20 maf is flowing below Kotri every year, but only during the three monsoon months. There is very little or no flow during the remaining nine months, causing all the damage.

The latest foreign consultant’s study has determined 4.32 maf per annum to be sufficient to check sea incursion.

The problem is how to distribute this amount in monthly doses of 0.36 maf for year round protection of the delta.

This can only be done by storing the requisite amount in dams and then releasing the required dose every month.

Not building dams will not help the situation at the delta but will make it much worse.

Only more dams can help to reverse the unacceptable thermal to hydel ration from 70:30 to 30:70.

A ratio of 70:30 is unheard of in any country having rivers.

A mega dam pays back its construction cost in 5 years and then pays back the same amount every year.

Chairman Wapda has said that Bhasha dam will pay back its construction cost in 5 years (same will apply to Kalabagh dam)

He also said that Tarbela dam is paying back its full construction cost every year, and Mangla dam three times its full construction cost every year.

Tarbela dam is generating power at 75 paisa per unit, and Mangla dam at half that cost.

The argument is that there is not enough water in the river system to justify a third mega dam (yet Bhasha dam is being built).

The above argument is not correct. By the time Kalabagh dam comes on stream in six years time, Mangla and Tarbela will have lost capacity equal to Kalabagh dam.

Kalabagh dam will store only the water no longer being stored at Mangla and Tarbela dams. There will be no requirement for any water additional to what already is in the river system.

Alternate means of energy – oil, gas, coal, wind, solar will give us electricity but not water.

A people can live without electricity but not without food.

Pakistan again using mafia links for terror strikes

Mateen Hafeez, TNN, Mar 17, 2010,

 

MUMBAI: Saturday’s arrests of the two terror suspects in Mumbai who wanted to set fires at three locations across the city shows that Pakistani planners are now returning to their old ally, the underworld, to plot terrorist acts.
In the recent case, Abdul Latif Rashid alias Guddu, 29, and Riyaz Ali Imtiaz alias Rehan, 22, were arrested for conspiring to set fires at the ONGC office in Bandra (East), Mangaldas Market in Kalbadevi and Thakkar Mall in Borivli. Latif’s uncle, Abdul Bashir Khan, is an absconding accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, which was plotted and executed by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who is now living in Karachi. Khan is currently living with Dawood in the latter’s Karachi flat and works as his assistant.

The security establishment in India has been claiming that the D-gang is hand-in-glove with Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) in the execution of conspiracies in India.
In the 11/7 Mumbai train blasts case, the police arrested a doctor, two engineers and a sotware programmer who did not have any prior criminal record. However, the recent case points to the in-depth involvement of the D-gang. "The two accused were in touch with a D-gang member who had asked them to identify youths for terror training in Pakistan," said the source.
Officials in the security forces said terror bosses may have returned to the underworld because the police have mentally de-linked the underworld from terror. "The police seem to have formed an opinion that gangsterism is entirely different from terrorism and they do not pay heed to gangsters when it comes to probing terror cases nowadays. This could be one of the reasons why the Pakistani terror handlers are focusing on the use of the underworld," the security source said.

 
"In 1993, the underworld had first participated in a terror strike. Later, the modus operandi changed and the handlers started recruiting young people with no criminal records as the underworld was already on the police list," said a security establishment official.
In the 2001 Parliament attack, new faces who were neither in the police list nor connected to the underworld were recruited. In the post-2001 modus operandi, the use of educated youths from the Muslim community was seen

.
Software engineer Mansoor Peerbhoy, a Pune resident, who had a job with a Rs 19-lakh-a-year salary, was arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch in 2008 for being part of the Indian Mujahideen. He was accused of hacking into computers and sending terror emails.
Earlier, in a string of post-2001 terror-related cases in Mumbai, an MBBS, an MBA, three civil engineers, four mechanical engineers, two chemical engineers, a pilot and a professor working for the National Defence Academy, Pune, had been arrested. While the police had focused on these men, most of them were later acquitted by the court or discharged by the central Pota review committee.

Noteworthy also is that absconding Indian Mujahideen operative, Riyaz Bhatkal, who is also suspected to be in Pakistan, was connected to the Fazlur Rehman gang before he formed his own extortion outfit. Bhatkal later took to terrorism.

No Spinzone: Interview with history

By Anjum Niaz

Paris was like a femme fatale. Ambassador Jamsheed Marker loved being in the company of artists, writers, fashion designers and intellectuals. He counts conductor Zubin Mehta and actor Omar Sharif among his good friends. But one sad incident clearly stays in his memory of those bucolic days; the untimely death of Shahnawaz Bhutto. Marker sketches the details of the tragedy as though it happened yesterday.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto lived in Cannes, in the French Riviera. The lodgings were loaned to her by the then French minister of justice. The minister was a good friend of the Bhuttos as was President Gaddafi of Libya. Gaddafi had given large sums of money to the Bhuttos. One evening during dinner in a restaurant, the two boys — Murtaza and Shahnawaz — entered into an argument over the division of the money.
“Benazir tried to calm them down but she didn’t succeed,” remembers Marker. In the end she took her mother and sister back to their home, while Murtaza followed Shahnawaz to his flat. The fight turned ugly. At some point the French police came to arrest the inmates. By that time Shahnawaz was unconscious. He had taken an overdose of drugs. The police could not arrest Murtaza because he had a Syrian diplomatic passport. Later that night the younger brother passed away. The police arrested his Afghan wife for “not coming to the aid of a dying man.” She hired a lawyer but the case was quashed by the bereaved family when she threatened to spill the beans.

“The whole affair was so sordid; so grim; so grisly,” says Marker who was given all the details by the head of the French intelligence police. But General Naseerullah Babar, who was later Benazir’s interior minister, claims that General Zia had a hand in the murder. He had sent a death squad to eliminate the younger son. Babar says Shahnawaz was poisoned, I ask Marker: “No, that’s not true at all. Zia had nothing to do with it.”
Ambassador Marker, 88, sits in his airy study at his Bath Island home, surrounded by photos of world leaders he has met. It’s like an interview with history as he unfolds chapter after chapter of world events in which he was a player dexterously mapping Pakistan’s course among the comity of nations. Did a supernatural power guide him? I ask. He smiles. “As a fighter in the navy, I encountered danger and death. It made me strong. Life is all about determination, diligence and truth.”

He is busy writing another book where he will name names. Unlike Quiet Diplomacy, which is a brilliant memoir of the ambassador, the next one tentatively called Outlook, will focus on the social, developmental and political corrosion in Pakistan over the years. “Sycophancy is the single factor in our failure to progress,” he says. He remembers how one day he and his wife went to have lunch with Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and Begum Raana. The host was missing. After a while he came in seething with rage. “Normally Liaquat didn’t lose his cool. But that day he fumed,” says Marker. “How dare these evacuee fellows present me with a number of properties saying that I can have them in lieu of my properties I have left behind in India?” the prime minister told Marker. “I threw back the folder at them saying that they should never raise this subject again until they had provided shelter to each and every refugee living out in the open air all over Karachi.”

Marker says Liaquat Ali Khan was an honest man. “When he died he did not own a single house and had just Rs4,000 in his bank account. Look at our leaders today… they are corrupt and surrounded by sycophants whose only job is flattery. It’s been the death of our value system. Few have the guts to speak the truth before the rulers.”
How come Marker is meant to be in the Guinness Book of Records as having been Ambassador to more countries than any other person if he was not a sycophant? “Well, I’m not sure if I’m in the Guinness Book, but all I can say is that I never jockeyed for a job. I really didn’t care and in fact each time the government changed I resigned.”
Though he was a non-career diplomat, Marker holds the record of serving as ambassador of Pakistan continually for thirty years, in ten top capitals of the world. In each country, he left a mark. Embarrassed to talk about his own feats, Marker meanders through vignettes that add a touch of humour to them. “In Prime Minister Suhrawardy’s time the joke of the day was that the society ladies were divided into two categories: PPM (pinched by the prime minister and UNPPM (un-pinched by the prime minister)! But he was another very honest man. His only weakness was women.

“Zulfi would say that the only way Suhrawardy can be arrested is for molesting women!” Marker was a good friend of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who like Marker shared a love of cricket. “But when he became the PM, I stopped calling him Zulfi.” Marker remained a friend even when ZAB was out in the cold during the Ayub era. “I sent him a letter in the diplomatic bag. I’ve never told anyone but I even gave two lakh rupees to him when he formed the PPP. I could have lost my job, but I didn’t care!”

The rot according to Marker began with Ghulam Mohammad. The bureaucrats became very powerful and in collusion with Punjabi politicians like Gurmani and others ruined the system of governance. “People are like sheep led by wolves,” Marker quotes a friend. “Pakistan after Liaquat has never been ruled by a genuinely elected leader.” says Marker. “Those who ruled were never true representatives of the people.”

He wanted to resign when Benazir Bhutto became the PM the second time. “She came to Washington on a state visit. In our private meetings where we discussed Pakistan’s national interests, she always had her lobbyist Mark Segal and friend Peter Galbraith sit in. I was most unhappy about it. They had no business to be there.”
There are many more anecdotes that Marker shared with me. Hopefully they will find a place in his new book. History is about people in power and how they ruled. Who better to write about Pakistan than this great man who served “two presidents, seven prime ministers, three chiefs of army staff and many foreign ministers.”

Marker quotes Moeen Qureshi who was with Zia on the night Bhutto was hanged. “I stayed with Zia until 2am in the morning. Zia was cool as a cat as we talked about everything under the sun. The next morning I read that ZAB had been hanged!”
anjumniaz@rocketmail.com