Once upon a time there was a sport that we Pakistani use to be very proud of; we had the league of extra ordinary sportsmen that had the ability to beat any team on any ground. We use to call it cricket I guess… I remember I was such a big fan of Imran Khan when I was a kid that whoever use to ask my name I used to reply that my name is Imran Khan and that what was my nick name back than.

But things have drastically changed since than. Yes we still have the fastest bowler and fastest century maker still in our league but the spirit has gone like it was never there. My father once told me about an Australian business man and cricket lover Kerry Pecker; who arranged a cricket series in the 70’s. He hand picked some veteran and dynamic cricketers like Imran Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Graham Gooch(England), Sunil Gavasker etc from every test cricketing nation, paid them handsomely and made them play in his series.

The same kind of a series is making big headings these days; they are calling it the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The cricketing gurus predict it as a big blow for the ICC as the cricketers are twice thinking before signing their central contract. Reason; money talking and damn they are paying millions. National hero Inzimam and Muhammed Yousuf signed a 10 curore deal with ICL. Razzak and Imran Farhat are the latest to join the bandwagon. Ex skipper and wicket keeper Moin Khan is the middle man in Pakistan and making the deals possible.

Now this is a big blow for the national cricket. Who’s responsible? PCB I say. One may ask why? Well in a non democratic country every organization is headed by the friends and family members of the dictator. The story of Pakistan is no different. The president of PCB has always been the guy in uniform or the family member of any minister. The board members have always been some talent less bastards who have hardly played any cricket but are related to the ministry some how. As a result we see the cricketing decline in these years.

Some predict ICL would be better for the cricket. I can’t see how but it’s definitely very beneficiary for the cricketers. Especially those cricketers who are quite near to retirement.

Popularity: 12% [?]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTa60UnsNMI]

The other night I was flicking on the remote from on channel to the other. Hoping that on some channel their must be something that’ll be at least interesting for a change. My prays were answered and on some movie channel I saw one of the greatest piece of art ever made in the history of cinema. It was Steven Spielberg’s world war-II epic Schindler’s List. The 1993 epic for its cinematographic excellence won many Oscars including the best picture award. The biographical film is based on the book Schindler’s ark written by Thomas Keneally. The plot revolves around Oscar Schindler; Sudeten-German Catholic businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during The Holocaust.

The film frame by frame and scene by scene is a work of Spielberg’s genius. During the film I realized  the amount of unspeakable tragedies the European Jews faced during the holocaust period. About 10 million were killed most of them burned alive according to the Jewish historians. But if you look into the history you will also find  a large number of scholars and writers that have denied the some of the so-called realities of holocaust, they find the figure of the dead and some events (that are quoted by the Jewish historians) exaggerated. Some even completely deny the Holocaust itself.

There are strict laws in Europe for Holocaust deniers. The so called freedom of speech champion Europe(where you can curse the GOD and Jesus) even sent writers to prison if they are found denying the holocaust. Reason; it is a sensitive issue for the Jewish community. But the point I want to raise in this post is the fact that despite all the tragedies and holocaust the behavior of the Jewish people specially the big guns and decision makers is confusing. They went through some really hard times. They have experienced men being cruel and evil but we hardly find a difference in their behavior when it is their turn in power.

I look at the Middle East and I see blood shed. Loads of dead bodies, killings, rapes, law less ness and not surprisingly but on the basis of religion. How different are the Israelis from the Nazis. They have become what they hate the most. I wonder if the media was as powerful as it is now; was it possible for Hitler and nazi party to kill millions of innocent Jews? I don’t know. But nearly a million Iraqi Muslims have died after American invasion. Israel supported the invasion and is also ready to sponsor the American war against the neighboring Iraqi Muslim states especially if the war extends to Iranian soil. From the early nineties till now Iraq has turned into a ghetto by the respectable world including Israel.

I won’t defend any action of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda here as they have given another reason for the invaders to carry out their atrocities against the innocent Muslims. Some say they are working for the invaders, I can’t agree more. But the point is despite the UNO being functional, despite the media being free and unbiased, despite the world being a global village and more humanitarian I am observing a Muslim holocaust in the middles east and the strings are pulled by none other than the holocaust survivors.

Popularity: 5% [?]

koii ummiid bar nahii.n aatii
koii suurat nazar nahii.n aatii

[ummiid = hope, bar = achievement]

maut kaa ek din mu’ayyaa.N hai
nii.nd kyo.n raat bhar nahii.n aatii

[mu’ayyaa.N=definite]

aage aatii thii haal-e-dil pe ha.Nsii
ab kisii baat par nahii.n aatii

[aage = some time back, ha.Nsii =amusement]

jaanataa huu.N savaab-e-taa’at-o-zahad
par tabiiyat idhar nahii.n aatii

[savaab = reward of good deeds in next life, taa’at=devotion, zahad=religious deeds]

[tabiiyat = frame of mind]

ham vahaa.N hai.n jahaa.N se ham ko bhii
kuchh hamaarii Khabar nahii.n aatii

marate hai.n aarazuu me.n marane kii
maut aatii hai par nahii.n aatii

[aarzuu = craving, par= but]

kaabaa kis muu.Nh se jaaoge ‘Ghalib’
sharm tumako magar nahii.n aatii

[Kaaba = House of GOD ]

Popularity: 5% [?]

When Rana Jalil, 38, lost her husband in an explosion in Baghdad last year, she could never have imagined becoming a prostitute in order to feed her children. A mother of four, Jalil sought out employment, but job opportunities for women had decreased since the US invasion .She begged shop owners, office workers and companies to hire her but was treated with what she calls chauvinistic discrimination. Within weeks of her husband’s death, a doctor diagnosed her children with malnutrition.

Fighting tears, she recalled the desperation which led her to the oldest profession: “In the beginning these were the worst days in my life. My husband was the first man I met and slept with, but I didn’t have another option … my children were starving.” She left the house in a daze, she recalled, and walked to the nearest market to find someone who would pay her for sex. She said: “I’m a nice-looking woman and it wasn’t difficult to find a client. When we got to the bed I tried to run away … I just couldn’t do it, but he hit and raped me. When he paid me afterwards, it was finished for me.

“When I came home with some food I had bought from that money and saw my children screaming of happiness, I discovered that honour is insignificant compared to the hunger of my children.”

Iraqi widows desperate

Prior to the US invasion, Iraqi widows, particularly those who lost husbands during the Iran-Iraq war, were provided with compensation and free education for their children. In some cases, they were provided with free homes. However, no such safety nets currently exist and widows have few resources at their disposal.

According to the non-governmental organization Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), 15 per cent of Iraqi women widowed by the war have been desperately searching for temporary marriages or prostitution, either for financial support or protection in the midst of sectarian war.

Nuha Salim, the spokesperson for OWFI, told Al Jazeera: “Widows are one of our priorities but their situation is worsening and we are feeling ineffective to cope with this significant problem. Hundreds of women are searching for an easy way to support their loved ones as employers refuse to hire them for fear of extremists’ reprisals.” She said the NGO has documented the disappearance of some 4000 women, 20 per cent of whom are under 18, since the March 2003 invasion. OWFI believes most of the missing women were kidnapped and sold into prostitution outside Iraq.

Although few reliable statistics are available on the total number of widows in Iraq, the ministry of women’s affairs says that there are at least 350,000 in Baghdad alone, with more than eight million throughout the country.

Bitter trade

As Iraqi families continue to fall on hard times, some have been forced to make the most painful of decisions – selling their daughters. Abu Ahmed, a handicapped father of five who is himself a widower, sold his daughter Lina to an Iraqi man who came to Iraq to “shop” for sex workers. Abu Ahmed said he could not afford to buy food for his other children. He told Al Jazeera: “I’m sure that whatever she is, at least she is having food to eat. I have three other girls and a son and what they paid me for Lina is enough to raise the remaining ones.” Abu Ahmed had been initially approached by Shada, the alias of a woman living in Baghdad, who sought young women for Iraqi gangs running prostitution rackets in neighbouring Arab countries.

She told Al Jazeera that her role was to convince young women from impoverished families that a better life awaited them beyond the country’s borders. She said: “Families don’t want them and we are helping the girls to survive. We offer them food and housing and about $10 a day if they have had at least two clients.”

“Our priority is virgin girls; they can be sold at very expensive prices to Arab millionaires.”

Shada said she sleeps in a different house every few nights as armed groups have marked her for trial and assassination.

Escape from Jordan

OWFI’s Salim says cases like Lina’s have become very common as poverty is increasing in Iraq and desperate families sometimes sell their daughters for less than $500 to traffickers. But increasingly, young Iraqi women arrive in neighbouring capitals to find that prostitution carries a heavy and dangerous price.

Suha Muhammad, 17, was sold to an Iraqi gang by her mother, herself a prostitute, after her father was killed. When she arrived in Jordan, she was gang-raped by four men who told her they were teaching her the tricks of the trade. She told Al Jazeera she had been sold to a gang that caters to VIPs in Syria and was often shuttled to Amman, the Jordanian capital, for high-profile clients.

After six months, she escaped: “I ran away and an Iraqi family helped me by driving me to the immigration department where they helped me get a passport to return to Iraq. “My aunt is now taking care of me in Baghdad. She never imagined that my mother could sell me, but unfortunately women in Iraq are not important and respected.”

Traffic

Mayada Zuhair, a spokesperson for the Baghdad-based Women’s Rights Association (WRA), said Iraqi and Arab NGOs are trying to monitor the trafficking of young women from the war-ravaged country to neighbouring destinations.

She told Al Jazeera: “We are trying to find out the fate of many widows and teenager girls who were trafficked. Unfortunately it is not an easy process and without international support, funding, and resources, we fear more young Iraqi women will be taken abroad to work in the sex trade.” In the meantime, however, prostitution remains the only option for Nirmeen Lattif, a 27-year-old widow who lost her husband in an attack on Shia pilgrims south of Baghdad.

When she turned to her husband’s relatives for financial support, they could not afford to help her.She says she tries not to think of the gravity of what she does or the dishonour it carries in conservative Muslim society.

“I think of my children, only my children; without money we starve in the streets.”

Popularity: 5% [?]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHeQUtRsMLU]

Vital Signs and Shoiab Mansoor. the best patriotic song of its century

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weKAorNQ2MU]

Nusrat Fateh Ali at his best in Pakistan Pakistan

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbN83zMCy7o]

Muhammad Ali Shekhi - Mai Bhi Pakistan Hoo

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGKF5o0YimY]

Finally Junoon with a Jazba Junoon

Popularity: 4% [?]