Culture and civilisation III on June 3, 2015For Gramsci, culture being a social relation, influences the individual in his self-organisation to “discipline one’s inner self, a coming to term with one’s own personality: it is the attainment of higher awareness with the aid of which one succeeds in understanding one’s own historical value, one’s own function in life, one’s rights and obligations. […]
Boat people and the promised land II on December 3, 2014The hegemonic designs of imperialism have turned this world into an inferno. All countries of strategic importance have turned into simmering cauldrons. Every dawn disseminates death with or without democratic disregard. In the name of religion, creed or even abstract democracy, drenched in their own blood by their countrymen, droned by the US and its […]
A persistent syndrome on April 23, 2014“In an age of cultural repression and societal dissolution, a revolution in miniature is fomented by the act of having an original thought. This is the only way to take a perusal of the bigger picture” — Phil Rock Stroh. We hear much today of words like ‘justice’, ‘rights’ and ‘equality’ but sadly that is […]
Terrorism: religious or capitalist? III on September 5, 2012Like any other religion, Islam too has co-existed for centuries with poverty, hunger, oppression, illiteracy and human rights violations. Turkey, despite boasting about its Islamist credentials, has no qualms in eliminating the Kurds, refuses to sever its ties with Israel and continues to toe the US line against Assad in Syria. In history, the systematic […]
Terrorism: religious or capitalist? II s on September 4, 2012After the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the Arab regions were ruled by different tribes in isolation from the western world, unintegrated with international market capitalism. The existence of a central government was a distant dream till 1925 when the West realized their importance as energy havens. Ibn Saud, after being forced to concede the […]
Islamic Fundamerntalism on September 3, 2012Terminologies and notions do not thrive in a vacuum. They owe their origins to certain causes, if not concrete motives, that terminate only after attempting to accomplish predetermined ends. In the mid-1980s, terms such as obscurantism, extremism and ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ were interred from the caverns of history, thereby giving a new lease of life to […]
For my own part, its Greek to me on June 25, 2012The financial inferno has set Europe ablaze. It is all happening at a dazzling pace with no respite for the debt-plagued nations. The crisis-ridden cyclic phase of capitalism has come full circle, and is staring its fervent apologists in the face. The current tide of ruin continues to grow unabated despite all the poppycock and […]
To thine self be true on June 7, 2012Apparently, the Pakistan Army has decided to call it a day in one of the tempestuous and conflict-ridden provinces of Pakistan, i.e. Balochistan. Perhaps the realisation of sailing too close to the wind has forced the army to reconsider its strategy about this ill-fated, segregated and demonised piece of land. Has good sense finally prevailed […]
Et tu, Brute? on May 18, 2012Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her biography summed up Voltaire’s beliefs, while attributing the following phrase to him, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” My article on Balochistan titled “Any Change is a Change in the Topic”, which was published in Daily Times on […]
Caesarism: ambition made of sterner stuff on April 13, 2012April of 1979 brought another day of doom in the chequered history of Pakistan. A brewing tempest unravelled, and an action-packed drama reached its expected conclusion. A populist leader, a demagogue, a brilliant albeit remarkably controversial former prime minister, was sent to the gallows in hideous circumstance by a Frankenstein’s monster. The impossible happened, but […]