Showing posts with label free expression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free expression. Show all posts

Thursday, July 8, 2010

'Thankyou Raisani'- Sharing an article par excellence.



http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/04-degree-fake-real-raisani-qs-08

Reaction to statement of Raisani in The News: Thank you, Raisani

Thank you, Raisani

It happened one bright sunny morning in the Land of the Pure that one fine gentleman, Mr Raisani of Balochistan, announced to the whole world that cared enough to listen: a degree is a degree, genuine or fake, it doesn’t matter. Armed with this information, my gardener, who is quite apt at the art of digging things, decided to go for a mid-career transition, and opened a dentist’s shop. I say shop because the word clinic is not in his lexical range. He is very happy, this gardener. He digs at people’s molars and slashes pieces of their tongues, and beams at a newly acquired piece of framed paper that adorns half of his clinic’s… errr... shop’s wall. It’s a fake degree, ladies and gentlemen, bought at the local meat shop. But what does it matter, a degree is a degree even if it is acquired from a butcher, we don’t care. Talking about this honourable Mr Butcher, he, as a side business, has opened up a fake-degree issuance bureau under the direct patronage of 144 or more members of parliament. Since he is very good at cutting guts and cleaning them inside out, he is thinking of getting a surgeon’s degree for himself. Would the respected Mr Raisani, who thinks a degree is a degree even if it is fake, allow this newly inducted member of the medical community to perform a surgery on his esteemed being? It needn’t be a gut surgery, a simple realigning of the reality-check hormones would do.I must say I am a bit resentful of Mr R who has taken so long to establish the worth of genuine degrees. I mean, why didn’t he say so when I was wasting the most precious years of my life writing assignments and reading obscure philosophies to get my genuine degrees? Why didn’t I just buy some fake ones? But it is never too late. Next time I go for a job and my employer tells me that I need a PhD in order to get a permanent job, I will simply invest in a fake degree. Can Dr Awan please guide me in this particular field? I would also request the HEC to please allocate a special fund for buying fake degrees so that the poor members of the academia, like me, could put decent food on their tables.All in all I am quite looking forward to the impact these golden words of wisdom might have on my students. As soon as the summer holidays are over and these students are back, I plan to spread this new mantra of prosperity among them. “Haven’t you heard?” I’d say, “A degree is a degree and it doesn’t have to be earned.” Imagine the relief; no designing courses, no sleepless nights reading books, no marking of papers, no keeping of records. In fact, no universities! Oh, here’s an idea: why don’t we just close these places of indulgence and turn them into gambling dens?I recommend a career change to all the people who work at universities. As far as I am concerned, I’ve already decided what I am going to do with my life. I am going to join the Defend-Zardari movement. It’s new, it’s happening, it doesn’t require an unblemished past, and above all you get great coverage on the media. The only thing I will have to do is change my name so that it begins with an F, and learn the art of bullheadedness in the face of intelligence. The perks are amazing. I will get free grooming, free face-lift, free wardrobe for Capital Talk, and yesss, a 10 per cent from the latest ‘Buy-the-lawyers fund’ every time I say the words democracy, danger, sacrifice and revenge… not to mention non-state actors, whatever the hell they are.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

DAWN.COM | Sci-Tech | Pakistanis create rival Muslim Facebook


DAWN.COM | Sci-Tech | Pakistanis create rival Muslim Facebook

After all expression is free!

ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis outraged with Facebook over “blasphemous” caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed have created a spin-off networking site that they dream can connect the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, reports AFP.

A group of six young IT professionals from Lahore, the cultural and entertainment capital of Pakistan, Launched www.millatfacebook.com on Tuesday for Muslims to interact online and protest against blasphemy.

The private venture came after a Pakistani court ordered a block on Facebook until May 31, following deep offence over an “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” page considered “blasphemous” and “sacrilegious”.

“Millatfacebook is Pakistan's very own, first social networking site. A site for Muslims by Muslims where sweet people of other religions are also welcome,” the website tells people interested in signing up.

Dubbed MFB, after Facebook's moniker FB, its founder says professionals are working around the clock to offer features similar to those pioneered by the wildly popular California-based prototype.

Each member has a “wall” for friends to comment on. The site offers email, photo, video, chat and discussion board facilities.

The Urdu word “Millat” is used by Muslims to refer to their nation. The website claims to have attracted 4,300 members in the last three days — mostly English-speaking Pakistanis in their 20s.

The number of aficionados may be growing, but the community is a drop in the ocean of the 2.5 million Facebook fans in Pakistan and there have been some scathing early reviews of the start-up.

Neither has Facebook been immediately reachable for comment.

“We want to tell Facebook people 'if they mess with us they have to face the consequences',” said Usman Zaheer, the 24-year-old chief operating officer of the software house that hosts the new site.

“If someone commits blasphemy against our Prophet Mohammed then we will become his competitor and give him immense business loss,” he told AFP, dreaming of making “the largest Muslim social networking website”.

Once signed up, members are a click away from debate on the bulletin board.

For example, “Enticing Fury” wrote: “The reason is that this forum must be reserved for ALL MUSLIMS OF THE WORLD and not only Pakistan. So using the word MILLAT is very good!

“Well done guys. You have made a great alternative for the whole Muslim ummah (nation)!”

But the nascent quality of the work-in-progress website has preoccupied and dismayed some, as well as drawn at least one damning newspaper review.

One member wrote: “they need 2 have more info”.

Another posted a mournful: “need games here as well. I miss cafe world” referring to the popular Facebook page where members can run their own virtual cafe.

“It was a good idea... as it can give us a forum to connect, but its reach is too limited,” Mohammad Adeel, a 31-year-old pharmacist told AFP in Karachi, who joined to keep up with friends he missed due to the Facebook ban.

Local newspaper was crushing. “The quality of user experience is so abysmal that it does not merit the humble title, 'Facebook clone',” it wrote online.

“To sum up, MillatFacebook is a bold effort... but it is unlikely to capture a large audience, judging by the online experience it offers currently.”

But Zaheer is pleased with his handiwork, saying the site has already attracted members living in Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Pakistani law student Rana Adeel, 21, signed up to MillatFB in Lahore after receiving invites through SMS and email from friends.

“In two days, I got more than seven friends. If the Facebook ban is lifted, I'll keep networking on both,” he told AFP.

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