R O N I Nammar yasir’s personal blog

Blogger Meet up’s are more than socializing with the pseudo intellects, free red bull and exchange of visiting cards. The advent of Web 2.0 allowed every internet user to easily set up its web blog and publish rants, ramblings and views without the approval of any editor. Some blog about their smelly cat or the latest web application covered in the mashable, a number of bloggers whine about their busy routine (letting it out of the system) while others force their expert political opinion on their readers. Blogger meet up’s allow these pseudo intellects (like myself) to sit under one roof and be in agreement to something for a change.

The latest episode of blogger meet up that took place on Friday March 6^th at Royal Rodale had a similar agenda i.e. activism. Majority of the bloggers that I have the opportunity to talk to started their blog after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination which implies to the sense of responsibility they felt as a citizen of this country. As the blogging culture got popular more and more people indulged themselves in the habit of blog reading and writing. But unfortunately they lost their aim n the way, and started writing about stuff that was more popular then blogging about something they felt passionate about. And unfortunately for the past 3 years politics is the most popular thing in the market. And writing about politics involves the suicide attacks, the insurgency in Sawat and Waziristan, the lawyer’s movement issue and the dysfunctional govt’s of Musharraf and PPP. So tragically speaking the Pakistani blogosphere almost became the replica of the main stream electronic media (Geo, ARY etc.)

I walked in late to the venue with Fariha, Munir and Saqib but luckily got the best seat in the hall. With Teeth Maestro on my left and Jehan Ara on my right I was feeling like a celeb already It didn’t took me long to feel the heat in the air, and the fact that like always Dr.Awab was the target of some non bloggers whose political sentiments got hurt when TM used his right to blog. What I learned that as far as you are non popular and non creative nobody cares if you even post private photos of Salman Taseer’s family. But if you have a following and you have earned that with your writing skills and creativity then you are bound to follow a ‘framework’ or a set of rules that will bound you to express yourself within certain parameters.

Highlights:

1.       Branding Pakistan, Googler Badar Khushnood shared some insightful experiences and emphasised on branding Pakistan on the blogosphere, every forum and especially in your daily life. Highlight the goods and correct the wrongs just not put a question mark on the bad things happening in the country and by pass them.

2.       Corporate Girls: Fariha Akhtar came up with the idea of starting a forum where she will highlight problems and achievements of working class women in Pakistan. I personally find it a very brave initiative as discussing some of the taboo issues can face some serious opposition but I am pretty much sure that constructive matters will be dealt and it will not be a television’s reality show.

3.       Tag places: Another good suggestion coming from Googles only man in the country Badar Khushnood. We all use google maps and similar web applications. Now its time to use these applications constructively by tagging your favourite hangout, local library, park, gym, ice cream parlour etc. I will tag Gulestan e Johars most famous Perfume Chowk

4.       Blogging is no rocket science: Blogging is not limited to wordpress or blogger. If you want to get your voice heard, podcasting is just the solution. But its the responsibility of us privileged to go out and spread the word and enlighten them of their rights and facilities that they can use to help.

5.       Resolution Time: Bloggers were requested to resolute their action plan for this year. Batool Habib resolute to promote Pakistani art and culture on her blog. Shahzad aka dehog floated the idea to put pictures of happy faces and beautiful places of the country, and allow the world to take a peek in the real Pakistan. I pledged to convert more non bloggers into bloggers at least 500 for this year.

6.       Pakistan.wikia.com: All bloggers will contribute to this site and will put up their resolutions on it. Usman Sheikh, a young entrepreneur decided to set up a wiki page to spread Pakistaniyat on the web.

7.       National PR Policy: Salaina made some interesting pointers and promised to roll out national PR policy that can serve as a roadmap for the authorities who are actually paid for this job I am personally looking forward to it.

There was a lot of talk that bloggers should do this and bloggers should do that, my suggestion to them is that if someone is not doing what you like, then there is no point to sit and whine but to contribute to the Pakistani blogosphere. Bloggers like Jehan Ara, Mohtashim, I. Faqeer, Kalsoom, Sana Saleem, Supe etc. have been doing that from day one. So newbies should visit these blogs and learn from the pros.

I would like to thank Rabia, Badar and Salaina (CIO and Google Pakistan) for pulling out another successful event. Wateen for the goodie bag and red bull for free red bull. And after the event we went to bowling alley for bowling. yay!

Popularity: 11% [?]

What does the world out there think of an average Pakistani? Post 9/11 this question would have a very different answer but things drastically changed for the land of green we all call home. So what went wrong? Not any of the attackers in 9/11 were Pakistani. Osama Bin Laden was in Afghanistan at the time of the attack. Saddam Hussayn which was danger to United States was the President of Iraq and not Pakistan. For the past 8 years we ‘supported’ US in their war, we practically took back our stance on Kashmir and sincerely started peace talk with neighbour India. And despite incidents like Samjhota Express where a service office was involved in the Killing of Pakistanis, we hardly ever confronted the Bharat Sarkaar for their demanding role in this relationship. For all these years our president taught us the lesson of moderation and we tried not to be extremists and evolved as Enlighten Moderated Pakistanis Muslims (if there is such a term).

The above para might sound irrelevant to this post but it surely defines the time line in which the Pakistani blogosphere was born. So to understand the psyche of an average Pakistani blogger one needs to go and study the post 9/11 Pakistan. Last Sunday bloggeres from Karachi were invited to t2f (the second floor) to meet Nick Fielding who is associated with immediate.org.uk. Nick is a senior journalist, public speaker and co-author of Masterminds of Terror. As a senior reporter of Sunday times he covered the repercussions of 9/11 from Afghanistan.

The agenda of the meet up was to have a perspective on the use of technology and new media and how an average Pakistani is getting benefitted from it. He was amazed to find out that we Pakistanis have a growing network of bloggers. He knew about teabreak which came as a surprise to me. But this clearly reflects the quality of the blogs that are the part of our network. On his question of what an average Pakistani blogger thinks; my answer was; that an average Pakistani blogger is a patriot who scribbles its quill to show the world that this country comprises of hard working men and women who have nothing to do with terrorism or west perceived extremism. We don’t regard Taliban or Alqaeda members as our heroes nor find the US (drone) attacks and intervention in the country praiseworthy.

In the end we agreed to advocate blogism and found it obligatory to spread the word. It was encouraging to witness that an average powerless Pakistani blogger can actually help to improve country’s image; a duty which payed ministers and bureaucrats failed to perform.

Photo credits: Madam Jehan Ara

People who showed up at the event: Jehan Ara,Sabeen Mahmud, Mohammed Nawaz, Farzal Dojki, Munir Usman, Fariha Akhtar, Sahar Ali, Nick Fielding and RONIN

Popularity: 11% [?]

Who said you need a PC to read your favorite blogs?

Teabreak takes another exciting initiative to facilitate your blog reading habits. Now all your favorite blogs are on the teabreak network and on the tip of your fingers.

Just log on to;

mobile.teabreak.pk

And have a mind blogging experience any time, any place but only on teabreak.pk

Popularity: 5% [?]

A week before the independence day I got a phone call from my patriotic sister R.Sameem, she had a brilliant idea to involve the entire Pakistani blog community to blog something good about our nation and country. We brainstormed and decided to shoot out emails and blog what we had in mind. I named this small project; ‘Phir Se Jeevay Paksitan’

Asim helped us out with the Page and other important stuff and together we pulled this off successfully. Though we were unable to involve the entire Pakistani blogging community but as they say; Katra Katra samander banta hai. on the request and appreciation of my blog friends the teabreak team  has decided to have this page on the blogosphere for sometime, and if any blogger would like to contribute about any national event or something that concerns our country. This site will be a paltform for national issues.Feel free to drop us an email.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following contributors;

1. Lubna Shahid
2. Shahzad Khan
3. Taimoor Masroor Qasim
4. Saqib Ahmed
5. Ayesha
6. Haseeb Shoukat
7. Zaheer Iqbal Naru
8. Hammad Memon
9. Supersizedme
10. Sawj
11. Om Perkash Batra
12. Rakesh Kumar
13. SyedFaisal
14. Salman Khawaja
15. Bina Khan
16. Ayesha Baig
17. COL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD.)

Popularity: 5% [?]

We as Pakistani citizens have always complained on how poor the state of the country is. Whether it’s the system, people, corruption, power shortages, terrorism or traffic jams you name it. But despite these social evils and other major crisis there must have been so many real life occasions when you would have been felt proud of the country we all called our Homeland.

Pakistan is our home and we have contributed in both the good and bad. But today for a change bring the patriotism that lies within you to life and blog something about your country that has made you happy, proud and patriotic.

Email your blog post entries along with tags here;

network@teabreak.pk

We will publish them with your blog name address on;

pakistan.teabreak.pk

This webpage will be especially setup for Pakistani bloggers on this nationalistic occasion.

Popularity: 4% [?]