God, customs and taboos! on July 25, 2013The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been blessed with a son. Little Prince George Alexander Louis now joins the line for the throne at number three. Anticipating a baby girl — a future queen — Britain promulgated the ‘Succession to the Crown Act 2013’ in order ‘to make succession to the Crown not depend […]
Additions, deletions and interpretations on July 18, 2013A hospital in Zimbabwe, as reported by Transparency International, has been charging poor women $ five every time they screamed during childbirth, under the pretext of them having raised a ‘false alarm’! In May, the Daily Mail, UK reported: “Two men who wanted to prove that their wives were ‘exaggerating’ the pain of childbirth underwent […]
Triple V: vulnerable victims of violence on July 11, 2013She was like a frightened doe, wary of every movement, pale and withdrawn, a frail body clad in a chaddar. She walked into my office over seven years ago, hiding behind her equally distraught mother. She was ‘A’, an-11-year-old victim of rape, and eight months pregnant, malnourished, an orphan Christian girl. Her widowed mother worked […]
First from the top! on July 4, 2013“The United Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. Through an annual competition, the UN Public Service Awards promote the role, professionalism and […]
Crutches, stretchers and penance on June 27, 2013‘Luxury’, such a simple word with such a simple meaning: the state of great comfort, extravagant living, a condition of abundance or great ease, a sumptuous environment, something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary. Yet we all define luxury in our own way. For some the word may entail having the option […]
Twaddle speak on June 20, 2013The Daily Mail, UK, reported: “Pakistan has threatened to ban Google from the country over an ongoing row about ‘blasphemous’ content on YouTube. The new Minister for IT and Telecommunications Anusha Rahman said unless YouTube, which is owned by Google, complies in removing clips that are deemed anti-Islamic it will block access to the search […]
Enough rope to hang! on June 13, 2013The Spiritual Science Research Foundation (SSRF), ‘bridging the known and unknown worlds’, is a non-profit research organisation registered in Australia, USA and Europe, founded by ‘His Holiness’ Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale, a Consultant Clinical Hypnotherapist from Mumbai, India. The SSRF has declared that 30 percent of the world is possessed by ghosts and negative energies […]
One step forward, two steps back on June 6, 2013In an utterly ‘brilliant’ move, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) recently declared DNA evidence to be secondary evidence in rape cases. Reportedly, it went further to state that conviction in rape cases would require the testimony of ‘tazkiyah-al-shuhood, at least four, adult, male Muslim witnesses who satisfy the court that they are truthful persons […]
Sleeping with the enemy on May 30, 2013The 25-year-old British soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, who spent six months in Afghanistan in 2009, was hacked to death last week in Woolwich, London, by two black men, using a meat cleaver. The assailants were Muslims. One of them was reported as saying: “The only reason we killed this man is because Muslims are dying […]
True grit: conquering Everest on May 23, 2013It is not every day that Pakistan gets a chance to rejoice. It is definitely not every day when Pakistan makes the news for something noteworthy. Last week, Samina Baig became the first Pakistani woman to reach the top of Mount Everest. Also last week, Zahra Shahid Hussain, the senior vice-president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) […]