This is just a short post. Here I am again, at the Dubai airport waiting to board my flight to Lahore. A bearded and otherwise very holy looking gentleman who is of Pakistani descent (I can tell because I heard him talk) but wearing Arab dress, has decided that it is in everyone’s best interest to listen to Naats. And that too at the loudest possible volume. So taking on this crusade of the moment, the “Maulvi sahib” has decided that he will kick up his stereo full blast and make everyone sitting here at the gate listen to his choicest selection of naat sharif. Unfortunately, the guy who is singing them is out of key and quite bay-sura. And oh, by the way, this very same scoundrel person has also parked himself sideways so as to consume at least two seats. That not being enough, he has also chosen to take his shoes off, because, you know, his feet are just *that* pretty. Needless to say, I have moved far away from the offending odor.

This is a classic example of the kind of religosity that is fast spreading in Pakistan. An empty, hollow, pretend-godliness which is “proven” to the world at-large by sporting beards, wearing caps, performing repeat umrahs and hajjs, by wearing arab dress and pronouncing words in an effected way (Rum-a-daan… whatever happened to good old Ramzan?), purging Khuda Hafiz from the vocabulary, walking around with a tasbeeh and even sporting a mehraab. While certain people that fit the above mentioned criteria may indeed be very holy, good and kind, the ugly fact of the matter is that most are NOT. They are buying into this farcical religosity wholesale. They believe that by doing the above mentioned, they have bought themselves a ticket to paradise because in their minds, it is not their responsibility to man that is paramount, it is instead their responsibility to religion. (Please re-read the last sentence). And what these idiots do not know, or choose to ignore, is that there is no religion without responsibility to man.

It is like the trader at Brandreth road or Hall road who will quote every single person who walks in the door a different rate – not based on his costs or a uniform, fair procing policy – but instead based on how big of a ride he thinks he can take the customer for. Of course, since this cap-wearing, bearded shopkeeper has “Ya Allah, Ya Nabi” and the four “Quls” plastered all over his shop, he can’t possibly be “bad” or “wrong”. All his sins have been forgiven, because much of the Quran is pasted on his walls… Surely, that is enough?

I am fine with people wearing jeans, shorts, burqas, dresses, turbans or shalwaar kameez. I am fine with people’s *personal* preferences, whether it is to say all five prayers, just one or two, or none at all. But I am *NOT* fine with people imposing their choices on others. Like this loon here at the gate. While pretending to be holy, he is actually being a public nuisance. A menace for man. And a menace for man cannot possibly be appealing to God. At least not the way I understand Him.

Just something to think about.

Lahore's almost-complete Software Park tower

After many delays and much hemming and hawing the much awaited Lahore Technology Park is almost complete. The building has now been topped off and work on the facade and interior has been moving forward full steam for a few months now. The parking lot structure, which will also contain some additional commercial space, is also pretty much done. Much remains to be done in the immediate vicinity though… vendors running small shops and stalls need to be moved, the power line distribution infrastructure needs to be re-worked, specially on the Ferozepur Road side, and the park grounds need to be beautified. But, in due time, that too will happen. For now, it’s nice to see the completed structure of a much delayed building!

It’s important to point out that with the delays affecting the CDGK’s (City District Government of Karachi) call center tower, this will be the country’s largest single structure devoted to technology – mostly software – businesses. The PITB (Punjab IT Board) is the agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of this complex.

Stay tuned for more as work progresses…

The Pakistan Technology Forum: startups, technology, hacking, DIY and much more...

After 3 years of being a blog, TechLahore is making the leap to being a little bit more than that… we’re launching the Pakistan Technology Forum today which we hope will serve as the favourite haunt for local techies, hackers, startup studs and tech business belles. The forum launches today at the following URL:

www.techlahore.com/forum

Head on over, make yourself a free account and let’s start the dialogue! At launch, the following forums have been created, though more will probably added along the way.

Sanjannagar Institute's Beena Raza presents at TEDx Lahore (Image credit: TEDx Lahore FB page)

For those who are presently hurtling away from the solar system at light speed in an attempt to validate Einstein’s Twins Paradox, this might be news. But for the rest of us here on earth, it should not be. TED – that wonderful platform for insightful talks – has come to Pakistan. Now, strictly speaking, TEDx is what has come to Pakistan… and the “x” denotes the fact that while the organizers involved have independently planned and organized the event, TED does bless the group and even helps promote their work on the TED.com website.

The first TEDx event was held in Karachi just recently, and now TEDx has debuted in Lahore. The first set of talks were held at the Ali Institute off Ferozepur road, and included subjects as diverse as musicology and philosophy, the psychology of terror, map making and more. The Express Tribune did a good job covering the event. Here’s the link:

TEDx Talking from Lahore

The TEDx effort is being undertaken in Lahore by volunteers, students, professionals and folks wishing to make a difference. Their spirit and intention is commendable. As they said via their Facebook status on Sunday, “We believe in doing, not waiting. We believe in getting things done to start a trend of pro-active behavior. We believe in less talk, more action. If you believe in these things, then you have the TEDxLahore spirit, whether you attended or not.” – Well said, TEDx Lahore team, and well done! We look forward to many more TEDx events in Lahore. It’s not just about listening to intelligent people talk about interesting things, platforms like TEDx can be supremely important in determining the course our country and people take in times to come. Indeed, the battle for the future is being waged in the minds of our countrymen. Whether these minds are won over by an insightful lecture at TEDx that captivates and enthralls, or by less productive, darker forces. That is the central question of our time.

Pakistan's Thar Desert holds beneath it trillions of dollars of proven - and untapped - coal reserves (Image credit: Travelpod)

Pakistan is an incredibly rich country when it comes to mineral wealth. There are numerous estimates of how significant our reserves of oil, gas, coal, metals, gold, marble and salt might be but one has to keep in mind that all such estimates are the result of limited surveys. Just the Thar coal reserves are known to pack more energy than the combined oil reserves of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Our Khewra salt mines are the world’s second largest, next to Canada’s gigantic Goderich mines. The amount of marble and onyx that is recovered from the mines in our northern areas is absolutely staggering. If only we had finer cutting and polishing industries our marble exports alone could generate a significantly higher level of foreign exchange.

In the past, there has been a great hesitance on the part of Pakistani governments to truly explore the country’s vast and untapped reserve of natural resources. Lately, however, I have been hearing at least the right sort of noises. For example, several power plants based on Thar coal extraction are about to come on line in the next couple of years. The investments in these facilities is in the $3.7B neighbourhood. They will tap a minutely small percentage of what the Thar reserves are capable of producing. Similarly, there has been a very promising development in Baluchistan, with the Army including 70,000 local Baluchi workers in a program to mine the mineral deposits at Chamalang and share the vast majority of the earnings with the local people, and to invest it in their development. Similarly, just a day or so ago, Salman Siddique, the Federal secretary of finance, announced that two companies – Chillian Tethyan Copper and Canada’s Barricks Gold - have agreed to invest $3.2B in the Baluchistan Rekodiq mines and develop infrastructure there.

This is encouraging! What must be ensured is complete transparency, which will hopefully reduce the chances of inefficiencies or graft creeping into the system. Here is a report from the Daily Times with more on the story:

Barricks, Tethyan to invest $3.2bn in copper, gold project

By Sajid Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s potential copper and gold deposit Reko Diq (Balochistan) has been able to attract a fresh investment to the tune of $3.2 billion by a joint venture comprising the world’s largest mining company Barricks Gold Corporation of Canada and Chillian Tethyan Copper Company.

Federal Secretary Finance Salman Siddique hosted a reception in honour of the President and Chief Executive of Barricks Gold Corporation of Canada, Aaron Regent which was attended by Federal Minister for Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh, diplomats and senior government officials.

President and CEO of Barricks Gold Corporation of Canada, Aaron Regent speaking on the occasion said that the joint venture to develop the Riko Diq into a world class mine with transfer of technology and human resource development for the benefit of the province as well as for the economy of Pakistan.

He informed that development of Reko Diq would create around 11,000 job opportunities and the project operations would provide jobs to some 25, 000 to mainly locals as well as technical human resource.

TO continue reading, please visit The Daily Times

ArziRehaish helps single out of towners find inexpensive accommodations.

Tariq Khan, Founder of ArziRehaish contacted me recently, asking if I would help him promote his new startup. I’m always game for promoting local entrepreneurs as long as they can clearly articulate their ideas, convince me about their value proposition and generally excite me about their ultimate market potential. After quite a bit of back and forth, Tariq was able to show me that he was on to something. Here’s an interview conducted over email that describes his startup in more detail:

Q: Tariq, what is ArziRehaish.pk?

A: ArziRehaish is an online portal that facilitates bachelors looking for rental accommodations in Pakistan. There are a fair number of young professionals who travel away from their home town for educational or work purposes. We have experienced that out-of-town students and working professionals face lots of problems in finding the right accommodation, at the right price, in their new city.

On the other hand landlords looking to rent out small, inexpensive accomodations don’t always contact Agents; primarily to avoid the overhead. So, there is an unfulfilled demand from both sides. We figured we could connect both  parties for FREE and make some money in the bargain! Hence ArzeRehaish.pk

Q: Interesting. How did you chance upon the idea?

A: Back in April, 2006 I got an interview call from Islamabad. I moved to Islamabad from Karachi, appeared in the interview and was selected as a Software Engineer. One of my friends, who was living in Islamabad, helped me in finding a hostel, and I started living there. Initially I was paying Rs.4,500 per bed. There were 3 people to a room, and in general, the Hostel facilities were good. Food was decent and the environment was clean and friendly.

After 6 months of my arrival, the hostel manager gave me a notification of rental increase to the tune of Rs.1,500. I wasn’t happy about this and requested him to reconsider because the new rent was going to be out of my budget. However, he refused and rather curtly replied, “If you can’t afford it you can leave the hostel on a month’s notice.”

I started to search for new accommodation options. I had to wait for the Sunday paper because mostly landlords advertise on Sunday. At that time there was no information available on the internet concerning bachelor accommodations. I desperately wished there was a web portal which could provide the information quickly and conveniently. After going through newspaper after newspaper, and spending 6 weeks looking, I finally found a better option and left the hostel.

What I went through during this time gave me the idea for ArziRehaish.pk.

Q: Do you think there’s a large addressable market for this?

A: There are more than 18 million internet users in Pakistan. Given our demographics, the majority of these users fall in the 16 to 25 age group. These numbers show that we have a huge internet market in Pakistan composed of people who are likely to be single. A fair percentage of these will likely travel outside their hometown to work or study. There’s definitely a market out there. All we need is to figure out how to exploit it with our innovative idea.

Q: You mentioned you would connect renters and landlords directly and for free. How do you plan on monetizing ArziRehaish?

A: The plan is to earn revenue in multiple ways: advertisements and paid premium services.

We are not planning on using a banner ad service and will instead opt to show ad inventories from local companies like the large telcos etc.

The second stream will be paid or premium services. We will place property information in a special high visibility section in return for a small fee.

Q: How do you go to market with this idea?

A: We’re going to adopt an online and offline marketing strategy. We plan to promote our offerings via online marketing, which includes posts on forums, blogs, Web Portals ads, SMS marketing, Social Media and online press releases.

In the first phase we will focus on online marketing tools specifically because they are low-cost. Once we are able to generate some income, we will move to the second phase, which will include offline techniques, including physical visits and in-person meetings, advertising on physical billboards and so on.

Q: Are you the only ones doing this? Who are your competitors?

A: Currently, we the only web portal in Pakistan exclusively focused on this very specific market. But there are some other players in the market who can be considered our competitors. Olx.com.pk is a competitor since it provides a classified ad web portal which includes a section for bachelor accommodations.

Bastee.pk is another competitor. They are a real estate site, but don’t specifically focus on bachelor accommodations.

Great! Thanks for that introduction. We wish you good luck in your venture!

PASHA's Launchpad events in Lahore and Karachi are a great way to put your product idea or business on the map!

I must say, a lot of interesting tech events and forums have been arranged recently. First the Blog Awards, then TEDx Karachi, which by the way deserves another post altogether. Now, Jehan Ara, President of PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) has announced that her organization will be starting a series of events appropriately called “Launchpad”. These events, to be held in Lahore and Karachi, will allow entrepreneurs, students and other budding garage inventors to pitch their ideas, business proposals and product visions to get instant feedback from an expert panel of judges. And what’s more, you can even get your idea funded! Or win an award! Not too shabby.

I wholeheartedly support this kind of activity. It’s very necessary for Pakistani entrepreneurs to connect, mingle and improve each others ideas and skills as a result. Innovation must be part of our cultural fabric going forward… I’ve gotten on that soapbox many a time in the past. Suffice to say, the more events like Launchpad and TEDx we can put together in Pakistan, the better we’ll all be for it. Good work PASHA!

TechLahore wins the 2010 Best Domestic Tech Blog award

Here’s a piece of happy news we have to share with you: TechLahore won the Best Domestic Blog Award at Pakistan’s first annual Blog awards, held in Karachi! Yay! The show was ably arranged by the CIO Pakistan team with Rabia Garib playing a key role, as she always does.

Thanks to everyone who voted and supported us. Thanks also to the hundreds of thousands who have visited this site, once, twice or on a regular basis. We really enjoy writing about all the awesome things happening in technology in Pakistan, and hope you enjoy reading about them too!

For more information on the Blog Awards (they really were a pretty big deal!), please visit: www.blogawards.pk

The Old Building at Aitchison: Once called the "Chief's College", Aitchison is still an elite institution. Its students - future leaders of Pakistan - are increasingly turning away from the US.

I am an Aitchisonian, and proud of it. While it has been criticised for being an elitist institution, Aitchison has certainly produced leaders. Whether they be sportsmen like Imran Khan and Ramiz Raja, politicians like Farooq Leghari (former President of Pakistan), Balakh Sher Mazari (former Prime Minister) and Nawab Amir Muhammad Khan of Kalabagh (Governor), martyrs in our wars such as Lt. Col. Zafar Shinwari and Maj. Shah Rafi Alam or businessmen like Syed Babar Ali and Shahzada Monnoo, Aitchisonians are and have always been undoubtedly at the forefront of all segments of society. And because Aitchison is the cradle for a substantial part of Pakistan’s leadership, trends amongst its students are an interesting indicator of where Pakistan is headed, or at least what social trends are shaping its elite.

I left the school many years ago, in the 90s. At the time, students from a typical graduating H.Sc. (A’ Level – or the “13th” grade for our American readership) class mostly went abroad to pursue further education. Most of them had large land holdings, or family businesses to return to, so the few years spent abroad were a way to travel, get to know the world a bit better and develop a sense of independence before the eventual homecoming.

By far, the most popular destination for these students through the 70s, 80s and 90s was the US. Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UT Austin, Northwestern and Rice were a few of the schools favoured by Aitchisonians. These Pakistani kids, almost exclusively from elite backgrounds, at an impressionable 17 or 18 years would depart to spend between 4 and 6 years in the US. During this time, these Aitchisonians didn’t just work towards higher degrees, they also experienced American college life, developed a sense of association with America and usually came back with good things to say about their experience. And when these kids went on to become industrialists, politicians, Army officers or leaders in other walks of life, they carried this favourable sentiment towards America with them.

The circumstances during much of the 20th century were such that living in a “friendly” America for a few years, conveniently obtaining visas and travelling there, and generally feeling comfortable in most American cities, was the usual experience for this highbrow elite. What they gained from their time in the US was a degree and a life experience. What America gained was powerful allies in a nuclear armed nation that is one of the most influential in the muslim world and also happens to be the sixth most populous state on earth.

Since 9/11, though, the US beauracracy and leadership has been like a turtle. Rather than understand the underlying issues, they have chosen to hide themselves behind a (series of) hard shell(s). While books can be and have been written about how these measures are unlikely to make America safer, and how the post 9/11 reaction that America exhibited has actually created larger armies of hardliners and potential terrorists in many countries of the world, let’s overlook that side of the debate for now. What is certainly clear is that by its extremely aggressive and, at times, clearly illogical and nonsensical policies, the US government has alienated its friends. In large numbers.

In fact, today, because of these US policies, Pakistanis who America would most want on their side, who America would most want to win over – the influential, powerful elite – are unwilling to even apply for an American visa for a summer vacation. With their money and influence, they can go anywhere on earth to enjoy themselves, to educate their children, to buy real estate or make investments. Why would they do so in a post 9/11 America that has shown too much insularity and insecurity, and very little understanding and acumen?

Looking at the list of schools to which the graduating  class of Aitchisonians is headed, one can confirm this trend. While a few students are still going to the US, the numbers have diminished drastically. What used to be 80%, is now a mere 20%.

Interestingly, those staying back in Pakistan and attending new, but immensely progressive and excellent  local universities like GIK Institute and NUST have increased in numbers from what used to be virtually zero in 1990, to a good 20% of the graduating class today. England, despite the train bombing episodes, has managed to be fairly even keel about visas, ease of travel and has managed to stay away from draconian steps such as implementing a “Patriot Act”, ala America. This more balanced reaction has allowed the UK to maintain – despite having a much smaller number of Universities to choose from – continued interest from the Pakistani elite.

Where do Aitchisonians go for higher education after they graduate? Not where they used to.

As you can see from the 2009 data above, almost a quarter of the Aitchison College H.Sc. graduating class stayed behind in Pakistan and chose to attend the country’s own elite universities. Frankly, I can’t remember any time during the 80s or 90s when this happened. Also, the US is now getting only 20% of Aitchison’s graduating class whereas it used to be the destination of choice for something between 65-80% of Aitchisonians. Canada and Germany have been huge gainers, because they are seen to be “friendly” and more relaxed.

So, what does all of this mean? For Pakistan it certainly means good things. First, by staying back, the most highbrow Pakistanis are stamping recently created local institutions of higher learning with their approval. Second, because these local schools are now providing education for the rich and powerful, they will also receive a lot more attention from this influential segment of society. Third, by heading for new destinations such as Canada and Germany, Aitchisonians are undoubtedly creating networks in those countries which will be beneficial to them and to Pakistan, in the form of business alliances, political liaisons and more.

However, this trend does not bode well for the US. Not only is it losing an opportunity to shape the future leaders of Pakistan, it is also increasingly seen as an unfriendly, harsh and arbitrary actor. You never know when you’ll get your visa stamped. It could be weeks, or it could be a year. You never know when some ill-trained, racist, angry-at-the-world type immigration officer will abuse the significant powers at his disposal to ruin your week. You never know when the next burst of anti Pakistan propaganda will hit the NYT or make the Fox/CNN airwaves. It’s all very disconcerting and uncomfortable, especially for Pakistanis who lead a life of privelege and couldn’t care two hoots for the economic opportunity American once represented.

By the way, while I have used Aitchison as a case study here, I know for a fact that trends at most other elite institutions in Pakistan are quite similar. America is out – or “tired” to use Wired magazine terminology. While Pakistan, Canada and Europe are in and most certainly, “wired”.

Of course, one has to wait for the myriad consequences of this significant shift to manifest themselves in public, inter-governmental and business affairs. In the next 5-10 years, as the post 9/11 generation of the Pakistani elite works itself into positions of power, what they see as a closed, unreasonable and biased America may no longer be automatically assumed to be a friend or even a desireable place, much less a country to be emulated or a beacon of freedom or democracy

Change is certainly afoot. The unintended consequences of the Bush reaction to 9/11 continue to unravel. Time will tell where things end up. From what I can see, America is causing itself more harm than its enemies ever could.

Tom Friedman misses no opportunity to vilify muslims, Pakistanis and the middle east. He's at it again... (Image credit: Amazon.com)

I get it. There are neocons and then there are neocons. The first reference would be to the easy to identify variety; those of the Perle and Cheney ilk. Folks that don’t bother to pretend or cover their tracks. They shoot first and ask questions later. But then there’s the more insidious, surreptitious genus of war-mongers who operate in the garb of enlightened intellectuals. These camouflaged  operators are much the same on the inside but appear overtly thrilled at the prospect of the “flattening” of the world, of the developing nations coming into their own and also appear concerned with the Green revolution. Tom Friedman epitomizes this second category.

What does that have to do with us, you ask? And with entrepreneurs and technologists in Pakistan? Everything. People like Tom Friedman are pursuing an agenda of deliberate vilification and misinformation about the the muslim world in general, and Pakistan in particular. These cloak and dagger operators who masquerade as journalists and intellectuals must be answered by our pens. They must be exposed and the damage they have caused must be mitigated and reversed; damage, not only to us in this part of the world, but also to their own people, who they continue to mislead and fool, calling in the proverbial airstrike upon a mirage in the desert. They are making up an enemy that doesn’t exist, and in doing so, are filling the minds of Americans exposed to their writings in dying outlets such as the NYT, with hatred and mistrust of one fourth of humanity.

I didn’t quite realize how biased Friedman really was until, when reading his 2005 “The World is Flat”, I came across a mind boggling characterization injected by him. Never mind that he conveniently attributes it to an “Indian friend”. It’s mere inclusion speaks to the audacity with which Friedman carries out his campaign. In his book, comparing children in Pakistan with those in India, he claims that Pakistani children grow up resenting the richest residents of their neighbourhood, and harbour dreams of growing up and killing these neighbours to take over their wealth. This, in contrast to India, where children – altruistic as Indian young ‘uns are being counters to Tom Friedman’s caricatured young Pakistani devils – look upon the rich merely to forge aspirations and draw motivation for hard work.

“What complete balderdash and vomit-inducing nonsense”, I thought to myself upon reading this! Who is this man? And what the hell qualifies him to make such a mean-spirited, downright ludicrous characterization of a nation of 170 million people? Let me tell you. Tom Friedman knows NOTHING about Pakistan. NOTHING. Would Tom Friedman consider penning an article that generalizes the character of American children based on the acts of the perpetrators of Columbine? That would be ridiculous, right? But apparently it isn’t so to cast aspersions on Pakistani children even in the absence of a Pakistani Columbine. And aspersions that stand on nothing less than an interview with someone who is certainly not friendly toward Pakistan. Perhaps quite the opposite. High journalistic standards, my foot!

Based on this alone, Friedman had won the “This guy is a complete jackass” award as far as I was concerned. But this malevolent individual didn’t stop here. He had to keep on keeping on, spreading the fear, uncertainty and doubt in American society about the mysterious and dark Middle East; a region Tom claims to know so well based on his short trips there, including one under the watchful eye of the Pentagon, as an embedded reporter in Iraq.

In his most recent book (Hot, Flat and Crowded) – one which I did NOT buy, but instead chose to read a borrowed copy of for fear of funding the lunatic – Friedman makes the case for how America must once again lead the world by initiating a green revolution. Good goal, no doubt. But leave it to Friedman to inject venom even in a treatise such as this. Is this man a professional journalist or a professional character assassin of muslims and Pakistanis? The fact that the book is written in a rather arrogant tone might be dismissed as amusing. After all, here is a supposedly objective reporter making the case for the US leading in protection of the environment, an area where it is light years behind the rest of the world. Why? Just because the US is the US? How about a better argument than manifest destiny, Mr. Friedman? Considering that the USG hasn’t even ratified the Kyoto protocol, that it is one of the biggest consumers of polluting goods and has a per-capita energy consumption 7-8 times higher than much-maligned China’s, maybe the US should perhaps fix its own act or at least not impede other nations diplomatic efforts to reduce pollution before aiming to become a world leader. No?

Such arguments about divinely ordained rights to global leadership aside, the narrative that acts as the foundation for Mr. Friedman’s book includes such gems as these: First, Mr. Friedman claims that US import of Oil helps terrorists because OPEC countries are somehow using these revenues to fund Al-Qaeda and similar terrorist organizations. Nevermind that Saudi Arabia, more than any other country, would want Osama’s head on a platter. Nevermind that more people have died in Pakistan at the hands of Al-Qaeda than all US 9/11 and War on Terror deaths COMBINED, and that Pakistan fields a significantly greater number of soldiers against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda than all the nations in ISAF, including the US. Yes, Mr. Friedman, we must believe that the Government of Saudi Arabia uses oil revenues to fund Al-Qaeda, because without this, how will we hate those devil “moslems”? What a twisted world you live in.

Mr. Friedman goes on to tell us that US funded and run (specifically, Dept. of Defense) “American schools” are the shining lights of learning and scholarship in muslim countries, which otherwise have pathetic schooling. Mr. Friedman uses the example of Qatar to illustrate how the masses in Doha wept and cried upon the threatened closing of the American school. Get an education, Mr. Friedman (pun intended). Look up the performance of Pakistani O and A Level students from Aitchison, Lahore Grammar School, Karachi Grammar School, Beaconhouse, City School and numerous other 100% Pakistani institutions. Pakistani students perform better than any in the world when it comes to international examinations such as the H.Sc. Sc. O-level and A-level. Yes, Mr. Friedman, in the world. And before you tell us that the definition of the world here extends to only the commonwealth countries, please do consider how many American high school students would be able to succesfully navigate an A’Level Physics or Math exam. Compare the syllabi and chew on that.

Do your research, Mr. Friedman, because the cute yet misleading anecdotal accounts you use to draw sweeping conclusions are nothing but a thinly veiled means of vilifying societies, nations and a people against whom you seem to hold some sort of a toxic grudge. Contrast the foreign university placement, grades, syllabi or any other measure of academic achievement between any of these Pakistani schools and the American schools in Pakistan. Better yet, ask the students of an LGS or Aitchison what the reputation of the local American schools is. You will hear the same answer everywhere. They lack academic rigour and are simply not in the same league educationally. That’s not to cast blanket aspersions on all American schools everywhere, for I don’t want to follow in your footsteps. But open your eyes. There is a world beyond what you would like your audience to limit their awareness to.

American education, american thinking, american democracy, american business, american capitalism, american XYZ are not the fix-all panacea for every problem mankind is confronted with. In fact, if you take your blinders off you might even discover that the roots of many of the Earth’s current challenges have to do with the quality of life people in America have enjoyed since 1945. Everyone else on this planet had to work for a living. We had to export desirable commodities to earn foreign exchange which could then be used to buy things we ourselves could not make. America, in the post-WW-2 scenario, positioned the Dollar as a global currency that allowed it to buy anything from anyone at any price, printing the money and exporting the inflation. How much of this is ingenuity and inherent greatness, and how much of it is the good fortune of having played the role of a weight that tipped the scales over in a war between two already bloodied and exhausted opponents?

In a recent piece published on Salon.com, Glen Greenwald examines other gems from Friedman which just further underscore his fundamental bias against a part of the world he claims to unbiasedly report on, which he claims to educate the American people on, and which he claims to be knowledgeable about. Here is a particularly interesting quote:

ROSE: Now that the war is over, and there’s some difficulty with the peace, was it worth doing?

FRIEDMAN: I think it was unquestionably worth doing, Charlie. I think that, looking back, I now certainly feel I understand more what the war was about . . . . What we needed to do was go over to that part of the world, I’m afraid, and burst that bubble. We needed to go over there basically, and take out a very big stick, right in the heart of that world, and burst that bubble. . . .

And what they needed to see was American boys and girls going from house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, and basically saying: which part of this sentence do you understand? You don’t think we care about our open society? . . . . Well, Suck. On. This. That, Charlie, was what this war was about.

We could have hit Saudi Arabia. It was part of that bubble. Could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That’s the real truth.

Here is a link to the Salon.com piece.

If you are visited by disbelief, know that you have company. If you are wondering how an ass like this can sell so many books, realize that vilification, drama and rabble rousing are the stuff of best sellers. And if you are appalled, as am I, please be sure not to buy Friedman’s books, or let your friends buy them. Borrow a library copy, buy from a used book store, read an extract online or borrow them from someone who has – sadly – already funded this man’s myopic crusade. Don’t fatten him any further, please.

Greenwald does do a pretty good job of exposing Tom Friedman for what he is; a right-wing nutcase masquerading as a tree hugging intellectual. Someone who continues to support a war waged under false pretenses which led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people making the goody-goody case for a “Green revolution”… about as credible as a pig with wings, to be honest. It just doesn’t add up.

Before I conclude this post, let me ask one thing of you. If you agree with any of the above, please do yourself a favour and don’t keep your views bottled up. Express them; counter Friedman and his propaganda. Whether by educating friends and family who might still think of him as an innocuous character, or by countering his agenda on your blogs, in comment sections, on online publications and in your schools, universities and any other fora you have access to. It is time that we Pakistanis take a stand and tell our side of the story. Tom Friedman can stick his biased and hateful views about us where the sun don’t shine. We will not take this vilification lying down. His lies must be countered and a balanced view of reality must be presented to anyone willing to know the truth.