Turning 30

I'm turning 30 in an hour and a half.

It's the shift now where the big birthdays are every decade rather than every year, three years or 5yrs (18, 21, 25).

Goodbye to my 20's, it's a brave new world ahead...

Incomplete without the feet

Banana skins, ice showers and amnesty

Since I only write when I'm riled about something (which oddly enough in my last weekend as a 20-something is getting rarer and rarer- perhaps I'm getting more self-centred) I trawl through the free press (Unz & Taki) to find something that's counter-intuitive and irrational. I don't actually read the mainstream media anymore (except the Daily Telegraph from time to time and when I'm feeling particularly saucy the Daily Mail).

At any rate I must get to my point or at least start getting there. I love freezing fruit and then eating them. Today I had an especially delicious frozen banana, that had it not been frozen would have been thrown 4days ago. We must stop wasting food as we do and incidentally enough I eat fruits (and their skins) with gusto. It explains why even as I approach 30 I'm able to control my waist with some aplomb.

Also usually I find winters in London to be horrendous (I especially used to dread November). However while the winter was not so bad (notwithstanding the night before last when it sound like bombs were going off, the winds were that bad) I must say what has helped are ice showers. After I exercise (I don't step into the shower sweaty, I wait a bit) I turn the water to ice temperature. I make sure that all of my body is subjected to that but what I've realised is that by lowering the temperature of my body in such a dramatic way I'm not as sensitive to the cold as I should be.

Finally on everyone's favourite topic, immigration amnesty. Personally I think deportations are just too harsh but more of the same cannot continue. The West and the developed world must revise their immigration policy so that there is free settlement between first-tier nations (to move from Australia to America) and wealthy Westerners should be encouraged to emigrate to the developing world. They'll get much more bang for the buck and Uganda, with it's evergreen spring temperate climate, would be an ideal location for Western pensioners to settle. It would be bring about a transfer of capital, help demographics in both countries and create necessary cultural links. Our immigration/emigration policy is all wrong as it stands..

A Gay Kiss in Madrid and a troll in Silicon Valley

One of the best ways to reach equanimity these days is to unfollow everything. Therefore while I'm still on social media I actually don't follow anything or anyone (instead I look up individual profiles). It suits my own character (if my 30th birthday has 700 invites sent out, it's fairly obvious that I prefer holistic approaches to socialisation and people, intimacy is too often a cover for narrowness).

At any rate the original point of my piece is that I read on twitter about how a gay couple were forced out of Burger King and how apparently Silicon Valley has a star troll (a girl) who won't stop until the white, male patriarchy is dismantled (it's interesting how it's no longer a WASP patriarchy).

Other than that I always remember what Noam Chomsky said that (and I paraphrase) that to preserve the illusion of freedom create intense debate in ever-narrower bands of discussion. Okay I messed up that quote to such an extent that now I've had to go and link it:

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”

The illusion of freedom, brought on by the internet, is where we are as a society. We can no longer actually dissent from the liberal demo-capitalistic order (Churchill had the final word on democracy being the worst form of government but for all others). I also have noticed that the galloping inequality means that we are actually vindicating Marx's assertion that return on capital is going to exceed return on labour.

What does this all mean and how does it concern the title of the piece. It's that while as a Torykip I'm very sympathetic to the idea of capitalism but at the same time it's now evolved to corporatism. How are we supposed not to notice our new oligarchy? Well by dwelling on ever-dwindling civil rights cases (kissing in a Burger is now the new civil right it seems, isn't PDA bad form in any case).

Furthermore by concentrating and collectivising power it takes them away from the regions to the centre. When every town, locality and area have larger and larger swathes of authority it decentralises the metropolitan structure. The metropolitan elites would have it no other way but to undermine any pole of authority against them, this is why we are living in the Age of the Death of Common Sense.

Tariq Ali on the Afghan Resistance

Comrade Tariq Ali speaks about the Afghan resistance;  I am NOT kidding.

Dont say I didnt tell you: 

"A pre-revolutionary situation appears to be developing in Pakistan. The proletariat, long suffering under the yoke of neo-colonial exploitation, has begun to stir. Identifying the US as the head of international capital, the working class is ready for a complete overthrow of the oppressive system. In Peshawar, samizdat texts smuggled across the border under the noses of CIA-trained security forces are already circulating in the barrios. Relatively sophisticated elements of the ruling classes, fearful of losing their grip, but unable to rely on American tanks and drones in the dense urban landscape of Peshawar, are trying to pre-empt the revolution by installing a Kerensky-like figure in Islamabad. Others anticipate Thermidor and check the balance in their Swiss accounts, while American “advisers in the fortress-like American embassy still believe that the jackbooted thugs of the puppet Sharif regime will be able to hold off the revolutionary surge.
Meanwhile the young men (and women; contrary to Western stereotypes, women are an important behind-the-scenes component of the Islamist militias now being organized in working class neighborhoods) are moving on from the sometimes simplistic anti-imperialism of the Taliban; Islamic socialists will soon insert class and gender issues into the emerging debate. With the capitalist media increasingly discredited by their association with the White Russian forces in Afghanistan, these new voices may suddenly emerge on Friday to announce to the world a new dawn of hope. Aging revolutionaries across the globe may yet see that light burst forth from a region presented by FOX news and the New York Times as the heart of darkness. But the revolution will need our support as the forces of reaction in London and Washington attempt to land troops on the borders of Islamic soviets under the guise of protecting human rights and bourgeois democracy. Massive civil disobedience in Western capitals will be the only way these interventions can be thwarted.  Let us not be found wanting.”

The Taliban REALLY Don't Like Music

The kids take it rather well.
Talibs (or as Tariq Ali says, "the Pakhtoon resistance") make sure Pakhtoon kids are not destroyed by the evils of rhythm, harmony or melody. You have to click the link below to see the video.

Post by Shah Khalid Muhammad.

Was Nigel Farage right in blaming immigrants?

The fact of the matter is that the establishment (Tory-Lib-Lab) have left Britain in much weaker circumstances since the end of the Thatcherite era,

• Immigration is not a qualified evil but nor is it a blessing. It's the idea of who would you like as your neighbours and who would you want in your house. Ideally one would like to live with one's relatives (or at best close friends) but as we say in Farsi, Doori Doosti (friends from afar).

• The fact of the matter is that one should be somewhat in favour of one's closer connections and citizens. However the metropolitan elite is the middle class (from a financial perspective) living the high life (from a social perspective). The metropolitan elite, being inherently middle class, seeks to disadvantage those who are similarly aspirational. Therefore the interests in importing vaste hordes of unqualified immigrants, who won't pose a threat this generation or the next.

• Immigrants cannot be parasitical either in seeking welfare or in perpetuating their cross-generational interests. The idea of immigrants is ultimately to integrate into the wider society (or a certain class). In no way does that qualify as assimilation (I don't drink and don't plan too, seeing it as a death-instinct made manifest in the Wasps).

• I was told that as an immigrant I can't have sympathies for UKIP. I identify as an BritPak Baha'i and I don't seek to change British society, merely enhance it where I see sub-optimality. For instance I'm planning to host the Lahori festival of Basant in May Bank holiday, Iranian Christmas (Yalda) around my 30th birthday celebrations and Eid-e-Ridvan (the 12th day of the declaration of Baha'u'llah of his Mission to the World). 

• In no way do I feel offended or underminded by the traditional Season Greetings, in fact I wish everyone I meet a Happy Christmas and New Year (I feel Merry Christmas is a vulgar Americanism but I could be wrong but it does seem rather common).

That's all for now.

A Strategic Corporal in Faisalabad

A strategic corporal is a junior level operator whose actions can have huge strategic and political consequences well above his pay-grade.

A strategic corporal may have struck gold this morning in Faisalabad.

Imran Khan's PTI had given a call to "shut down" the city today. The PMLN leadership had mobilized it's own supporters/toughs to stop the PTI crowd. In the very first confrontation on Monday morning, someone in the PMLN crowd took out a pistol and shot directly at the PTI crowd several times. He has been caught on tape:



I have not yet heard any report of his arrest or even his identification. It is likely that he will turn out to be some low-level member of the PMLN crowd. Though it is still possible that he will turn out to be an agent provocateur, working for some intelligence agency; of course if he really works for an intelligence agency, he may never be caught in the intelligence republic of Ghaibistan. Anyway, we may find out some day. But one thing is already clear: his killing has energised Imran Khan's floundering protest campaign and if current clashes accelerate, it may be the spark that starts a prairie fire. In that sense, the actions of this low-level operative, whether an operative of the PMLN (most likely), the LEJ or an intelligence agency; may have very far-reaching strategic consequences.

What strategic consequences?
1. A prolonged agitation that leads to military intervention (direct, or indirect via intelligence agencies and an engineered national government). Such intervention to be followed by a hard-paknationalist regime and then by carefully managed elections (if we get that far). To be followed by an Imran Khan regime under military supervision?
2. A prolonged agitation that is suppressed by force and that delegitimizes the PMLN regime even if it holds on.
3. A collapse of the state and rearrangement of it's borders and it's fundamental characteristics (least likely in my opinion, but then again, how likely did a breakup seem in early 1970?)

Or do you think this will blow over?
Inquiring minds want to know.



Power Lunch 8 December 2014 Tahreek e Insaf kamyab by DinNews

Pankaj Mishra's Tendentious Little Book

This was a rolling rant I wrote while reading Pankaj Bhayia's book in 2012. Edited version follows

After being told that everyone from Orhan Pamuk to Pakistani Ambassador (and liberal feminist Jinnahist icon) Sherry Rahman is in love with Pankaj Mishra’s new book I have finally started reading it.
I have only read 50 pages so far.So I have NOT yet reached the meat of the book. But the intro is starting to set a certain tone. And its not a very encouraging one.
I am not impressed. At all. So Far. 

Seeing how little time I am getting and likely to get in the next few days, I know I am not going to be a doing a review. But a blog permits other possibilities. One of them is a “rolling review” (basically a rant in real time). So here goes. As I go through the book, I will try whenever possible to get online and say a few words. Quotes from Pankaj Bhaiya are in italics.

On  page 18: the word Islam, describing the range of Muslim beliefs and practices, was not used before the 19th century. 
WTF?

This is then negated on the very next page by Mishra himself.

The only explanation for this little nugget is that Pankaj knows his audience and will miss no opportunity to slide in some politically correct lines. There is a vague sense “out there” in liberal academia that Islam is unfairly maligned as monolithic. Pankaj will let people know that he has no such incorrect belief. It is a noble impulse and it recurs. A lot.

Furious Confusions

A PTI supporter I know on-line sent me the piece “An Ode to Fury” by Fahd Husain in the Nov 19 Express Tribune, with the implication that the fury discussed in this article justified the “revolution” being fomented by PTI and PAT. The following is an extended version of my response, which may also address critiques by others on my earlier piece, “The Tragedy of Imran Khan and the Insafian Revolution”.

The people of Pakistan have every right to be furious. They should be furious at those who have led them for 67 years and have brought them to their current state. But they should be even more furious at themselves for allowing this to happen: for electing incompetent leaders when given the chance, and for welcoming dictators with celebrations when they grew tired of those they had elected; for their worship of personalities and their ignoring of institutions; for buying into a toxic and bigoted ideology in the name of faith and patriotism ; for teaching their children mythology dressed as history; and for swallowing the propaganda of civilian and military governments without ever checking for its veracity. The deaths of children in Thar is indeed an incredible tragedy, but these children didn't just start dying this year; they've been dying for decades - even centuries. It is a sad fact that the society at large in that part of the world has not cared much for the plight of the poor and the powerless. I'm glad that the people of Pakistan are now furious about it, but will they respond by repenting of their own ways, or will they again go looking for fantasy solutions peddled by snake oil salesmen with big words and no ideas? As the poet Iqbal Azeem said eloquently:

 badalnaa hae to rindoN say kaho apnaa chalan badlayN

 faqat saaqi badal dayne se maekhaana na badlay gaa

(For true change to happen, tell the drinkers to change their own ways; the tavern will not change just by replacing the one serving the wine)

What I see is that some people, furious at the country's conditions, are looking to yet another savior running on the cult of personality. To the extent that Imran Khan is embodying the justifiable fury of the Pakistani people, he is serving a useful function. But history shows that those who embody such fury seldom, if ever, turn out to be actual saviors, or even good leaders. The extreme examples of this are Hitler and Mussolini, both of whom expressed the real anger of people overreal problems in their countries, but in the end, created even greater problems. I do not imply that Imran Khan is an extremist like these two, but his movement in its current manifestation does pose a real danger. A revolution driven by anger always leads first to incredible horrors, as was seen in France, Russia, China, and, to some extent, in Iran. Only in the long run do such revolutions move to their different outcomes – in most cases, disillusionment. Once people are brought to a frenzy, they cannot be controlled even by the leaders who led them there. The spark of fury that ignites revolution turns easily into fires of vengeance and hate. Is that what Pakistanis want? If so, Imran Khan is their man – though he should remember that the first people such revolutions consume are often their own leaders. And in almost all cases, the end result is not a democratic system, but a strongman dictator.

However, I am comforted by the fact that, while understandably furious, the people of Pakistan are not in a revolutionary mood. Imran Khan can gather a few tens of thousands - occasionally a few hundred thousand in large cities - for a one-night stand with music and entertainment, but there is no ocean of humans out in the streets of Pakistan day and night, as there was in Iran in 1978 or in Egypt in 2011, even though neither revolution produced a particularly desirable outcome in the short term. Most people still seem to understand that, all said and done, Imran Khan is yet another politician promising the moon. And they are strengthened in their opinion when they see the opportunists surrounding Imran Khan, and his own feckless behavior. Gravitas, though much ridiculed by those who lack it, is indeed an essential component of a true leader's make-up. It is what gives them the dignity to command respect and expect loyalty. Washington and Lincoln had it, Ataturk had it, Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah had it. Imran Khan, bless his heart, just doesn't. It is worth noting that all the gentlemen I mentioned achieved far greater ends without once resorting to the kind of personal insults and empty threats that issue forth every night from the roof of the PTI container. Can anyone imagine Mohammad Ali Jinnah or Mahatama Gandhi speaking in the idiom that Imran Khan, Shah Mahmud Qureshi and Shaikh Rashid use? They were erudite, dignified and hyper-intelligent individuals with the self-control and depth necessary in true leaders. They spoke firmly and eloquently, but with civility; their ideas moved not only their followers but also their foes by the force of their logic and conviction, not by the use of locker-room trash-talk. Today, one can disagree with their ideas, but no one can deny their stature – and this was apparent even before they had succeeded in their causes.

I think that the passionate defenders of Imran Khan conflate two distinct things. The first is a justifiable feeling of frustration with the current order and the desire to change it. The second is the belief that, because they are giving voice to popular frustration,  Imran Khan and PTI are going to fix the problem. Unfortunately, the latter does not follow automatically from the former. Just because your pain is real and someone gives voice to it does not imply that they can heal it, or even have the first idea of how to do so. Everything I have seen suggests to me that Imran Khan does not have the knowledge, character, judgment or temperament to do what it will take.

In the article, Fahd Husain says, “A state and a government that has lost the ability to care, has lost the mandate to rule.” Perhaps so, but by these standards has any government in Pakistan ever had a mandate to rule? And who can say that those who rule post-revolution will truly care? If history is any guide, the revolution will probably lead to an even less caring government by an even less accountable group. I could be wrong, of course ... and indeed, would be happy to be wrong. But at this point, I can only modify Iqbal's words to say:

  na Qadri meN ne Imran mayN numood is kee

  ye rooh apne badan kee talaash mayN hae abhee

(neither Qadri nor Imran provide what is needed; the spirit [of change] is still in search of a body it can inhabit)