haviZsultan
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No issue. University is first. Trust me. I kept fooling around and was too dedicated to Pakistan and paid the price back there. Imagine a person after every 6 months going back to Pakistan from Canada happily skipping semesters along the way.
Actually being on a forum has always affected my book writing adversely. Personally I am not sure if there is more culture or tradition I should add in it. Like you know Pashtun legends like Adam Khan and Durkhunai, Suris, Lodhis, Durannis, have enough about Pir Roshan, Khattak and others. Truly Pashtun history very rich and beautiful. Wanted to include all that but don't know if I should add more or leave some history for the next book-already a lot there anyway.
Actually that has to do with being hard-headed and stubborn. I used to be called that because sometimes something came over me and I wouldn't budge. Still happens.
Well that is because that is what they were taught from childhood and they do not use their own critical thinking skills - like I said before they are " merely toeing other's line " and " jumping on the bandwagon without knowing anything " or with " no knowledge of the reality on ground " ... Well , at times many people get compromised emotionally , that isn't something unusual or wrong and doesn't make any difference to your extensively knowledgeable posts ... I know why sometimes Mods dont delete posts that actually contain strong language ... Well when you get that post of Think Tank or Moderator which you have now , you will be able to control it , trust me ... With great power comes great responsibilityRight ?
True. But I am highly emotional... its a thing from birth. I get angry and I feel the need to say something. Especially posts that divide my country-it took hours and hours for others to teach me not to take offense at things said about Pakistan. Particularly what worries me is the talk of division from Pakistan by Pakistanis. It just hurts because this country is my blood.
Yeah... that bold part was in Spiderman.
Well @Hyperion is very sensitive about talking about his tribe or anything related to it even remotely so dont take it seriously ... He is Turkish-zai by the way But there you are , A Jr.Think Tank , all friendship aside , I do not see any other person on the PDF deserving of that position more than you ... What would be the reason that an overwhelming majority of tribals they dont want to talk to outsiders about their life conditions , customs or the ground realities ? Any particular one you can tell me ? Or can I attribute it to the " conservativeness" somehow ?[/QUOTE]
He has stopped commenting almost completely outside the Naswar thread. The only person who can make him comment on a topic is @Armstrong.
Personally Secur you should have been here first, in the think tank. I just came suddenly. Before that I was very inactive. Also I said it in the PM to Webbie that you were more deserving. I mentioned it once on Naswar Corner and he said ab kuch karna parey ga.
Offer might come @Secur. I thought it would for you. Hyperion I think doesn't want Jr think tank position though he too was a good option almost solely because he is from the region. Actually as far as the tribals not talking to anyone-it has been a huge issue for my book and for a long time I had lots of trouble finding a Mahsud (its a tribe name) to answer some questions. It has nothing to do with being conservative. Pashtuns people from the plains usually meet are city Pashtuns, some may be a little conservative but most I have met are just like anyone else. Dating takes places in Peshawar too. Last I heard there was a nightclub too. Perhaps thats why Afghan nationals abused Peshawar so much on other forum.
Basically the interview doesn't have to be like face to face. Lots of people think that but we journalists are very lazy. We don't like to go to people unless they are very famous personalities. We just talk on the phone or ask some questions over e-mail to which the respondent replies. I think I failed to mention that to @Hyperion. Hope he reconsiders. In any case he was smart enough to know that anyway-the logistics may be difficult with me in Pakistan and him in Turkey.
Reason 1) I can attribute it to the fact that they feel they are in the spotlight and don't really understand what to do when faced with questions that may be uncomfortable and have uncomfortable replies. See the thing is the war is going on in their regions. They see a lot of stuff that is, that might not be positively seen by others when they say it so I have to basically transfer confidence. For example if they say army killed 12 civilians by bombing a market or mention the at least 3 times the market in Makeen has been razed or bombed by jets, or the curfews it causes suspicion. When every attack is traced to Waziristan you know makes them wary and some feel they can't openly say what they want or feel or just explain their plight. I know all of these things. War is a terrible business and wrongs have taken place but we don't see any wrongs because our cities are relatively safer but for them it is very hard what is currently happening.
For example imagine an undeclared curfew from 6 pm to 9 am in Karachi (Its happened in Mingauara <its in Swat> for years before it was cleared) after a bomb blast. You just got off work as a small-time laborer and are dawdling about failing to notice the streets seem deserted. When you do notice now troops start firing at you suspecting you are a taliban fighter with your beard and pagree, you rush back home and barricade up your house-your wife comes and after worrying over you says there is no flour in the house but all shops are closed on account of curfew-there is one shopkeeper who is a daring old fellow who keeps his shop open despite the orders otherwise he knows his business will close-but how to go out? Your child starts bawling out of hunger... what to do? Then there are bombings, firefights in the nearby localities, attacks by militants. Firing in the street, land occupied by militants and sometimes the army, warehouses looting, mines taken over, derelict school buildings turned into garrisons to maintain the increasing number of soldiers.
Its not easy living in a war zone. But now when a journalist contacts you and says-tell me about everything the Yousafzai of Mingora, Wazir of Wana and Mahseed of Ladha each has strong emotions, is hurt and angry and information which if he gives he may be seen as a complainer and as a result anti-pakistani and combined with reason 2... well.
Reason 2) Another reason would be they do not trust me or know me enough so they suspect me, am I an ISI/CIA informer, a militant, what are my purposes? Do I want to show tribal people in negative or positive light... lots of questions come to mind. Its strange enough for me to be a wannabe Pashtun and its also strange for anyone from Karachi to know so much about that region, history, tribes and famous personalities.
To be truthful being a Nationalist can be a big hassle as I saw in Canada too-you become too active politically, all ends there, allegations fly, people attack you for your views and in north america anyone who does too much research on these regions or in my case on terror suspects who I believe may have been framed on false charges within those countries-time to pay the price. Then people who are too political look down upon us.
Oh sorry... sometimes my posts come out like I am hostile. I mistype and the posts have no structure. I didn't mean to say anything rude or anything.
I have seen religious people. I like my personal freedom and the thing with the religious members in our family is they want to impose their religion. That is annoying. But have never witnessed support to the Taliban. Some people make a distinction between Afghan and Pakistani Taliban but are shouted down-though for defence reasons the distinction is useful, primarily for deciding which groups we must tackle first and which are secondary... only am talking about how taliban in afghanistan are painted as angels sometimes. Probably one of the reasons these people hate us so much.
Christians had a huge part. Even Hindus. Its so sad no one even heard of people like Shri Jogindar Nath Mandal.
Yeah, I agree. A lot of people support Musharraf. Even my family. Personally I don't anymore particularly due to NRO and some other things, also if he had just kept power for 6 months or 1 year and brought maybe clean, new parties perhaps a lot could change. Then Bhutto escaped and Nawaz was released on insistence from Saudi instead of fair investigation into the assets of both.
Enlightened moderation was good and never say it impose it either. Me, I believe in secularism but I will never try to impose it... I leave it as an idea and reveal its possible benefits, then let the people who read my articles on it decide. Lets leave that debate.
Yeah. Linking nationalism with religion or ethnicity is a major issue.
We take these things too seriously. It would be insightful what you think about the posts on the other thread Secur. Particularly about the next step or merger with other ethnic groups. Its a very difficult process and perhaps even hard for people to think about because its basically something, an identity we have had for years. Flinging it away like old clothes a difficult business.
Do check out that long-boring post about the solutions I suggested. 1) Merger and 2) reinforce original identity like Lucknowi, Bihari or other.
I believe you are absolutely right... but I have almost always noticed a kind of sensitivity. For example on request on that thread I called Rafay to clarify a point to American Pakistani and darkinsky that its our family and others like ours that want to maintain muhajir identity-not the other way around. In reality its a very critical look by someone of muhajir birth and it becomes really hard for them to deny it. He posted something and backed me... basically thats all he did and state the same exact points I did. But when he said all Muhajirs should consider themselves Sindhis (I said we should merge too) adding that he accept's them as Sindhis a person even attacked him.
So the thing is I have to take care of sensitivities around certain topics otherwise I may end up doing the exact opposite of what I intend which is to increase ethnic harmony.
I agree. However their narrative has to be countered. If we fail to do this they win the propaganda war. I agree. Illiterate people and villagers tend to take ethnicity much more seriously by the way.
I agree. I remember a Pakistani friend telling me his dad had been offered citizenship of DROC (Zaire) where he lived previously. It is another thing that he rejected it but DROC is a country with one of the lowest GDP per capita's ($300) and the poorest of the poorest. Its in Africa and most of us Pakistanis haven't even heard of it but you know proves a point. We don't need to take an example from the Arabs in this regard. They are as bad when it comes to citizenship. Loyalty eventually develops with citizenship. There is a poster kingmamba, pakistani background, US citizen... i criticized US policy and he was at my neck in seconds. It can be done-middle classes and educated people should be accepted with open arms.
My mother got it, that wasn't as big an issue, she is from Lucknow like my father but ancestral towns are just different, my posts I know are a little unstructured at times-sorry. Hyderabad link is stronger with my fathers side as some relatives settled there but some from my mothers side as well-mostly because my fathers family and mothers family have ancient tradition of marrying with each other. The real issue was later with people we moved. 2003-4 or close. Also I worked for sufferers witness which moved some families, mostly from Kashmir but there were other cases too. It was a Pakistani charity with lots of Nationalist influences.
True.
And my posts too... they look like a jumbled mess at times.
Yeah. And changes can be seen. I used to see darkinsky's posts-man he couldn't live without insulting a Punjabi, Sindhi or Pashtun. Sometimes I really feel things are working. But theres always something in these guys stopping them from you know crossing that bridge completely. Luffy tones down... then he comes back again with new racism. Probably someone will report his previous post actually (no 386)... it is insulting to Pakistan and has the potential to start an ugly race war. He is trying to provoke me and knows now I can't say the things I used to.
Fun times for him. Yeah... I wouldn't say all this research, all this study didn't have no effect. Initially it was love for Pashtuns which grew from an initial attraction which itself developed out of biases I saw, alienation with family and the realization that despite my and our organizations attempts to do away with race completely we could do nothing-they existed so by changing race I wasn't really being anti-Pakistani or taking part in the issues. After studying so much, I think anyone in my place might have been affected.
Later I understood that perhaps i could be a harbinger of change in this country with such actions... because how come when a Punjabi or Sindhi is insulted his Baloch or "Urdu speaking" countryman does not feel insulted or vice versa? They are our people-fellow Pakistanis. We are to protect all of them. They see me defending them... the ethnic boundaries disappear, maybe they do the same thing. Now it has become much more important. This cause of ethnic unity led me on when those people on the other forum abused me very badly. I seriously felt very angry... I came hoping to get support from them and acceptance. Those guys are really crazy. Hate is a strong term but I may be somewhere close to it in my feelings for Afghanistan.
Anyway in short there are many, many reasons for this indentity change even fascination with the past-the possible princess our forefathers married who happened to be of Pashtun descent which is still an unsolvable mystery. This adopting another identity is also a very novel approach to ending the ethnic issue. By trying to impose a Nationalist identity we have constantly been trying to obfuscate an existing reality. For example if a Nationalist party had come forward and changed name of NWFP to Pakhunkhwa there would be no support for ANP. Everyone knows their history anyway. But we lack that mentality-we couldn't actually see each province had a name and a single province stood out (even now its a case with FATA)... instead we tried to say no ethnic names but then Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Kashmir all have them. So on part of us Nationalists there has always been a lack of understanding or unwillingness to understand these intricacies.
Yeah. I hope so.
The thing is I don't want just any publisher. I want the book to be sell... initially when I started it I didn't but am in difficult condition now. My parents even don't think too highly of me. Lots of issues. Its necessary it goes with some company that is extremely strong.
Well bro , I stay updated on the news and the happenings in my country and I am still this optimistic ...
Yeah. And the thing is they always tell us you gotta be impartial... when you try to be a journalist leave your Nationalism behind. That is very annoying.
Guess so... party is in our hearts. Not launched. It exists as basically a movement of a number of Nationalist organizations like Watan Parast Mahaz or Pakistan Nationalist Party... various other groups too.
You will ! Wait and watch ... We need to focus on education foremost ...
Thank you very much. You should have been here first secur.
I will make the request to Webbie... not very quickly though because I already asked once and me a new think tank so he may go like, you just came and already making demands.
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