Gambit Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Guest columnist Ahmed Rashid on how the real problems facing Pakistan are being sidelined by a surge of conspiracy theories Switch on any of the dozens of satellite news channels now available in Pakistan. You will be bombarded with talk show hosts who are mostly obsessed with demonising the elected government, trying to convince viewers of global conspiracies against Pakistan led by India and the United States or insisting that the recent campaign of suicide bomb blasts around the country is being orchestrated by foreigners rather than local militants. Viewers may well ask where is the passionate debate about the real issues that people face - the crumbling economy, joblessness, the rising cost of living, crime and the lack of investment in health and education or settling the long-running insurgency in Balochistan province. More Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Wicket Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Nothing new or surprising here. The fools have their heads in the sand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rajiv Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 I love watching GeoTV, same ole goons who just blab about nonsense but mind you there are some sane ones, who do talk sense. Its a pity that there is a groin tickling pathan to refute him there as well All they talk about is NRO Balochistan - RAW, Mossad and CIA How not to take from US and rely on General Tsao Ultra-Complex Musical Chair Blame Game I think they really don't know what's happening and as our PM said recently, who to talk to in PAK Obama admin are being foolish to distribute sweets there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomainK Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Nobody discusses the failure of the education system that is now turning out hundreds of suicide bombers, rather than doctors and engineers. That's what the madrassa culture does where education has been replaced by brainwashing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterTheVoid Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Compared to this, my "dog at my homework" stories sound pretty plausible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachinism Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 These guys have their heads buried in the sand. They cannot accept fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeXteR Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Sometimes i doubt if those guys know that there are some really great applications of sciences in reality ,other than Ak47 ,bombs and missles or other weapons. may be they should start watching saas bahu serials if they are so interested in conspiracy theories:giggle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jusarrived Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 disturbing thing is a lot of the public believe this crap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gs Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 The entire public education system has been hijacked by the islamic mumbo jumbo since Zia's days. Now we have an entire generation of brainwashed Pakis who actually believe in that propaganda. Ominous signs for India and the world in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViruRulez Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Pakistan and their conspiracy theories : BBC report (awesome read) Guest columnist Ahmed Rashid reports on how the real problems facing Pakistan are being sidelined by a surge of conspiracy theories. Switch on any of the dozens of satellite news channels now available in Pakistan. You will be bombarded with talk show hosts who are mostly obsessed with demonising the elected government, trying to convince viewers of global conspiracies against Pakistan led by India and the United States or insisting that the recent campaign of suicide bomb blasts around the country is being orchestrated by foreigners rather than local militants. Viewers may well ask where is the passionate debate about the real issues that people face - the crumbling economy, joblessness, the rising cost of living, crime and the lack of investment in health and education or settling the long-running insurgency in Balochistan province. The principal obsession is when and how President Asif Ali Zardari will be replaced or sacked. The answer is nowhere. One notable channel which also owns newspapers has taken it upon itself to topple the elected government. Another insists that it will never air anything that is sympathetic to India, while all of them bring on pundits - often retired hardline diplomats, bureaucrats or retired Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers who sport Taliban-style beards and give viewers loud, angry crash courses in anti-Westernism and anti-Indianism, thereby reinforcing views already held by many. Collapse of confidence Pakistan is going through a multi-dimensional series of crises and a collapse of public confidence in the state. Suicide bombers strike almost daily and the economic meltdown just seems to get worse. But this is rarely apparent in the media, bar a handful of liberal commentators who try and give a more balanced and intellectual understanding by pulling all the problems together. The explosion in TV channels in Urdu, English and regional languages has brought to the fore large numbers of largely untrained, semi-educated and unworldly TV talk show hosts and journalists who deem it necessary to win viewership at a time of an acute advertising crunch, by being more outrageous and sensational than the next channel. On any given issue the public barely learns anything new nor is it presented with all sides of the argument. Every talk show host seems to have his own agenda and his guests reflect that agenda rather than offer alternative policies. Recently, one senior retired army officer claimed that Hakimullah Mehsud - the leader of the Pakistani Taliban which is fighting the army in South Waziristan and has killed hundreds in daily suicide bombings in the past five weeks - had been whisked to safety in a US helicopter to the American-run Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. In other words the Pakistani Taliban are American stooges, even as the same pundits admit that US-fired drone missiles are targeting the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan. These are just the kind of blatantly contradictory and nut-case conspiracy theories that get enormous traction on TV channels and in the media - especially when voiced by such senior former officials. The explosion in civil society and pro-democracy movements that brought the former military regime of President Pervez Musharraf to its knees over two years has become divided, dissipated and confused about its aims and intentions. Even when such activists do appear on TV, their voices are drowned out by the conspiracy theorists who insist that every one of Pakistan's ills are there because of interference by the US, India, Israel and Afghanistan. The army has not helped by constantly insisting that the vicious Pakistani Taliban campaign to topple the state and install an Islamic emirate is not a local campaign waged by dozens of extremist groups, some of whom were trained by the military in the 1990s, but the result of foreign conspiracies. Economic crisis Such statements by the military hardly do justice to the hundreds of young soldiers who are laying down their lives to fight the Taliban extremists. Nor has the elected government of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) tried to alter the balance, as it is mired in ineffective governance and widespread corruption while failing to tackle the economic recession, that is admittedly partly beyond its control. Moreover the PPP has no talking pundits, sympathetic talk show hosts or a half decent media management campaign to refute the lies and innuendo that much of the media is now spewing out. At present, the principal obsession is when and how President Asif Ali Zardari will be replaced or sacked, although there is no apparent constitutional course available to get rid of him except for a military coup, which is unlikely. The campaign waged by some politicians and parts of the media - with underlying pressure from the army - is all about trying to build public opinion to make Mr Zardari's tenure untenable. Nobody discusses the failure of the education system that is now turning out hundreds of suicide bombers, rather than doctors and engineers. Or the collapsing and corrupt national health system that forces the poorest to seek expensive private medical treatment, or the explosion in crime or suicides by failed farmers and workers who have lost their jobs. Pakistan cannot tackle its real problems unless the country's leaders - military and civilian - first admit that much of the present crisis is a result of long-standing mistakes, the lack of democracy, the failure to strengthen civic institutions and the lack of investment in public services like education, even as there continues to be a massive investment in nuclear weapons and the military. Pakistan's crisis must first be acknowledged by officialdom and the media before solutions can be found. The alternative is a continuation of the present paralysis where people are left confused, demoralised and angry. Ahmed Rashid is the author of the best-selling book Taliban and, most recently, of Descent into Chaos: How the war against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8369914.stm This report is just awesome. This is perhaps the best report describing Pakistani's conspiracy theories which seems to be part of their school curriculum. :hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachinism Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 The explosion in TV channels in Urdu, English and regional languages has brought to the fore large numbers of largely untrained, semi-educated and unworldly TV talk show hosts and journalists who deem it necessary to win viewership at a time of an acute advertising crunch, by being more outrageous and sensational than the next channel. :hysterical: how long before his head is called for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 I have a very strong belief that this dark time shall pass, sometimes it needs to get worse before it gets better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomainK Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=192482 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meloveindia Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Allah and America yeh 2 A's inhe le DOOBEGA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gunner Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Allah and America yeh 2 A's inhe le DOOBEGA You forgot Army. Its Allah, Army and Amrikaaaaaa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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