maraahmed.com

watch the full documentary online here – my comments below:

altho the state of public education in pakistan is worrisome, calling it a “ticking time bomb” creates the kind of rhetorical bias and fear-based cultural knee-jerk reaction which have made any sensible dialogue between east and west impossible. how concerned are we for these kids who sit in the dirt and study useless books? is our concern focused mainly on a couple of paragraphs which talk about western colonial and post colonial exploitation in vague enough terms that we can interpret them as generic hatemongering? or are we truly concerned for the future of these kids – for their ability to get jobs, support their families, and eke out a decent existence.

public education has always been problematic in pakistan. what strikes u first and foremost, is its duality. public schools in well to do neighborhoods are nothing like those presented in the film. granted there are fewer good neighborhoods and more urban slums/villages in pakistan but that is such an important component of how public education could work and does work for some pakistanis that it is irresponsible not to even mention such schools. i finished high school in the public education system in islamabad and even tho i was less than impressed with the quality of the curriculum and the whole idea of learning by rote, my experience of public education was completely different from fatima’s and the same can be said for millions of other pakistanis.

i do agree with the man who blamed a lot of what is happening on the government where officials are busy lining their own pockets with money and totally indifferent to the plight of the poor. education is no different than any other public service – the same duality will be apparent if u look at healthcare or housing. it’s less about trying to brainwash the next generation, it’s more about the lack of investment in people who do not matter to the government or the elite of pakistan.

it’s a bit like the u.s. really except more pronounced. public education is not equal for all americans, neither is healthcare or housing. if u live in a good school district where u can afford to buy a house and pay hefty taxes, your kids will have a very different education than if u live in the projects. do kids who live in urban slums get the same opportunities as those who grow up in great neck or manhasset? do they see the world in quite the same way? the situation is much more dire in pakistan of course (it’s a developing country whereas the u.s. is the world’s only superpower) but it’s the same idea – poor public programs and services in a country where the rights of some matter more than the rights of others.

i think it’s time for us to get off our high horse and open up our minds to possibilities – within our own country and within other countries as well. fear is not going to get us far but a concern for humanity both at home and abroad might actually change things.

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays started his business life as a publicist. While still in his twenties, he was part of the propaganda effort that drove the United States into in World War I. He personally advised several US presidents starting with Woodrow Wilson and counseled numerous corporations and business associations. Hitler’s propaganda chief and Nazi henchman Joseph Goebbels was a reader and fan of Bernay’s writing in particular Bernay’s book “Crystalizing Public Opinion.” In this short excerpt from Curtis’s film we see one example of Bernays at work. Complete 4 part series here.

“Forgive an outsider and staunch atheist like myself who, on reading the recent French press comments relating to Ilhem Moussaid the hijab-wearing NPA candidate in Avignon, gets the impression that something is rotten in French political culture. Let’s take the debate at face-value. A young Muslim woman joins the NPA [New Anti-Capitalist Party]. She obviously agrees with its program that defends abortion, contraception, etc, i.e. a woman’s right to choose. She is then told that despite this she does not have the right to choose what she wears on her head. It’s astonishing.” Full article.

“Media reports indicate that 27 civilians were killed, including women and children and many more were injured,” Kucinich’s press release notes, adding, “The U.S. government has an obligation to protect civilians under international law. As Secretary of Defense, you have an obligation to ensure that all military operations conducted in Afghanistan are conducted in accordance to such laws.” Kucinich writes, “Please provide information about the events leading up to the air strike, including the name of the person who granted authority to US Special Forces helicopters to conduct the aforementioned airstrike, the name of the person who ordered the airstrike, a detailed description of how it was determined that the civilians traveling by minibus were Taliban insurgents, and the protocol for ordering this airstrike and all other airstrikes.” Full article.

We have no problem condemning atrocities done to women abroad, yet too many of us in the United States ignore the oppression on our doorstep. We’re suffering under the mass delusion that women in America have achieved equality. Full article.

Our debt to Haiti stems from four main sources: slavery, the US occupation, dictatorship and climate change. These claims are not fantastical, nor are they merely rhetorical. They rest on multiple violations of legal norms and agreements. Full article.

Late on the evening of June 9 that year, three prisoners at Guantánamo died suddenly and violently. As news of the deaths emerged the following day, the camp quickly went into lockdown. The authorities ordered nearly all the reporters at Guantánamo to leave and those en route to turn back. The commander at Guantánamo, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, then declared the deaths “suicides.” In an unusual move, he also used the announcement to attack the dead men. “I believe this was not an act of desperation,” he said, “but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.” Read more.

how our awful wars affect us.

awful, awful, awful…

Nato confirmed that it fired on Sunday on a group of vehicles that it believed contained fighters, only to discover later that women and children were in the cars. Full article.

“My worry is that younger people who do not find the mosque a satisfying experience, and women who find it a hostile environment, will drift away from the mosque,” said Abdullahi An-Na’im, a specialist in Islamic law at Emory University School of Law. “That means the mosque will become the exclusive domain of a very archaic understanding of Islam.” Full article.