Saad Masood

The 2008 film Swing Vote was not a box-office success. It was also panned by critics in equal measure. Even after all that, one line from the script stuck with me. Before I get to that, some context. The movie revolves around a fictional US presidential election where the fate of the vote comes down […]

Who would have thought? The defenders of the two holiest sites in Islam are about to break bread with the solitary Jewish state in the world! But that is what categorically signifies the realignment of forces in the Middle East and the wider terrain. I have written previously about earlier deals struck between Israel and […]

Almost all Western movies have one common shot at the end: a gunslinger riding into the sunset! This is to cap the story and showcase that whatever actions, achievements and results were possible – were indeed accomplished. As a matter of fact, this signals the end of one chapter and the beginning of another – […]

“To fight a protracted war.” This is the literal translation of a four-character Chinese Chengyu idiom. It is thought to have been conceived by Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military strategist. In his era-defining book “The Art of War”, Sun Tzu says that “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”. […]

For over a year now, opinion in the golf world has been divided over the breakaway LIV golf league. Players, commentators and the general public have been voicing their opinions – sometimes quite vociferously – for or against this new enterprise. The main reason for this divisiveness is the fact that LIV Golf is backed […]

As far as détentes go, this one must be up there with the all-time greats. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at loggerheads as far as memory can go. The leading Sunni and Shia powers in the region have even been at odds in the recent past as well. Consider. 2011 – During the Arab […]

Since independence, Pakistan in general and Pakistani politics, in particular, have been lurching from one crisis to another. While it is true that infant nations do tend to endure birth pangs of varying degrees, it is equally true that the universe has specially bestowed upon the Pakistani people a proportion of misery reserved only for […]

Ever-increasing terrorism activities, check. A hapless security apparatus, check. Economic meltdown, check. The luckless population at the mercy of the wolves, check. Major stakeholders blaming each other, check. Into the abyss, check! “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”. Nietzsche’s […]

The 2022 floods in Pakistan have been the most devastating in living memory. This is reflected in these grim numbers from the World Bank. GDP fell by around 2.2%, 8 million people were displaced, 9 million were pushed below the poverty line, 33 million were affected, and 1730 died, resulting in a $14.9 billion direct […]

Clint Eastwood has been the most successful actor of his generation, with a lot of accolades to his name. None more so than in the movie Dirty Harry, a phrase that is all the vogue in the vernacular media nowadays for different reasons! In the film, with an empty 44 magnum in his hand, he […]