Is computer a man?

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

‘House’ for instance, is feminine: ‘la casa.’
‘Pencil,’ however, is masculine: ‘el lapiz.’

A student asked, ‘What gender is ‘computer’?’

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer’ should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men’s group decided that ‘computer’ should definitely be of the feminine gender (‘la computadora’), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine (‘el computador’), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.

Technorati Tags: funny, Humour, man versus woman, man woman joke, marriage, Women

I was just going through usual stuff on YouTube and guess what I found! A Device that translates woman’s emotions! See the video below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXb31UNawg0

If its real then I wish to have one too!

Technorati Tags: humor, manslator, men, Women, youtube

Can daddy bathe me

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

• Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.
• Each kid will play two sports and take ither music or dance classes.
• There is no fast food.
• Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of ‘pretend’ bills with not enough money.
• In addition, each man will have to budget enough money
• for groceries each week.
• Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time–no emailing.
• Each man must also take each child to a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment.
• He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Emergency Room.
• He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a school function.
• Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside, and keeping it presentable at all times.
• The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.
• The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn themselves with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished,
• and eyebrows groomed.
• During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, backaches, headaches, have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.
• They must attend weekly school meetings and church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.
• They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:30 am.
• A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information:

each child’s birthday,
height,
weight,
shoe size,
clothes size,
doctor’s name,
the child’s weight at birth,
length,
time of birth,
and length of labor,
each child’s favorite color,
middle name,
favorite snack,
favorite song,
favorite drink,
favorite toy,
biggest fear,
and what they want to be when they grow up.

• The kids vote them off the island based on performance.
• The last man wins only if…he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment’s notice.
• If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years, eventually earning the right to be called Mother!

After you get done laughing, send this to as many females as you think will get a kick out of it and as many men as you think can handle it.

Just don’t send it back to me….

I’m going to bed.

Technorati Tags: funny, humor, Humour, husband, husband wife, men and women, men vs women, wife, Women

hijab

The nation has heard plenty of debate over racial profiling. But there’s a form of religious profiling that some young Muslim women in America say they endure whenever they voluntarily wear the hijab. The hijab, also known as the veil, is the headscarf worn by Muslim women around the globe. It’s a simple piece of cloth, but it can place young Muslim women in Western countries in difficult situations.
She doesn’t want your frosty public stares; the whispers behind her back; the lament that she’s been degraded by her father. What the Muslim high school senior wants you to understand is that she doesn’t wear the hijab, the head scarf worn by Muslim women, because she is submissive.
“It represents beauty to me,” says Abdelaziz, the 17-year-old daughter of two Egyptian parents living in Old Bridge, New Jersey. “My mom says a girl is like a jewel,” Abdelaziz says. “When you have something precious, you usually hide it. You want to make sure you keep it safe until that treasure is ready to be found.”
Some hijab-wearers say that strangers treat them as if they’re terrorists. Others ask them if they’re a nun — or even allergic to the sun. In some cases, their worst critics are not Americans, but fellow Muslim Americans. The pressure on Muslim teenagers in the U.S. who wear the hijab may be even more acute. Their challenge: How do I fit in when I wear something that makes me stand out?
Randa Abdel-Fattah, who has written two novels about this question, says wearing the hijab can “exhaust” some young Muslim women in the West. “You can sometimes feel like you’re in a zoo: locked in the cage of other people’s stereotypes, prejudices and judgments, on parade to be analyzed, deconstructed and reconstructed,” says Abdel-Fattah, a Muslim who has Palestinian and Egyptian parents but was born in Australia. Abdel-Fattah says people should not assume that Muslim women who wear the hijab are being controlled by men. She, too, struggled with the choice of wearing a hijab when she was a teenager.
“When it comes to the hijab — why to wear it, whether to wear it, how to wear it — there is theology and then there is practice and there is huge diversity in both,” says Abdel-Fattah, author of “Does My Head Look Big in This?”
The surprising history behind the hijab
Some women say the hijab makes them feel like they’re locked in a cage. But others say it leads to personal freedom.
Sarah Hekmati first wore the hijab at age 15 growing up in Detroit, Michigan. She is the daughter of Iranian parents who left Iran in 1979 during the Islamic revolution. Hekmati says the hijab liberated her from some teenage angst: Does my hair look good? Am I cute enough? Should I lose weight? “It gave me a sense of identity,” she says. “I really liked the purpose behind the hijab — a woman covering herself so that a man should know her for her mind, not her body.”
That purpose can be traced back to the Quran, Islam’s holy text, which encourages women to dress modestly, says Faegheh Shirazi, author of “The Veil Unveiled.” Some Muslims take the Quran’s advice as a command for women to wear the hijab, while others disagree, she says. “The Quran is very ambiguous about whether you have to wear the veil or not,” Shirazi says.
The hijab, however, actually predates Islam, Shirazi explains. The first known reference to veiling (Shirazi uses the term hijab and veil interchangeably) was made in an Assyrian legal text in the 13th century B.C., Shirazi says.
In the Assyrian, and later, the Roman and Byzantine empires, the veil was a symbol of prestige and status, she says. By the 12th century, the veil had been imposed on women in the Muslim world to exclude them from public life, Shirazi says. “A sign of distinction had been transformed into a sign of exclusion,” she writes in her book. People are still debating the meaning of the hijab today.
In 2007, British Muslim groups protested when schools were given the right to ban students from wearing full-face veils. In 2008, Turkey’s top court upheld a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves at the country’s universities. That same year, a Muslim woman was briefly jailed at a suburban Atlanta, Georgia, courthouse after refusing to remove her hijab in court.
Some moms against hijab wearing
The debate over the hijab can literally hit home for some young Muslim women. Those that wear the hijab in the United States can befuddle their mothers, who often immigrated to the West so they could be free from wearing the hijab and other rules imposed on women.
That’s what happened to Hekmati, the Muslim-American from Detroit. Her mother, Behnaz, was puzzled by her daughter’s decision to wear the hijab. Behnaz Hekmati grew up in Iran, where she did not wear the hijab. Young women who attended college in Iran like she did generally didn’t wear the hijab, she says.
Behnaz Hekmati warned her daughter that wearing the hijab would arouse the suspicion of Americans. “I said Sarah, when you cover your head here the people think you are political — they see you differently,” Behnaz Hekmati says. Most of the trouble, though, came from Iranian-Americans, who came to the United States to escape the Islamic fundamentalists who seized power in 1979, she says.
“The Iranians here bother her more than Americans,” Behnaz Hekmati says. “They say, ‘We got rid of you guys. We came here because we didn’t want to see you guys anymore.’” Hekmati was more concerned as a teenager about more personal issues, like her relations with boys. The hijab made it more difficult, she says. Few asked her on dates. Guys always seemed to put her in the “friend category.” She wondered if she was attractive.
“I wondered at times: Am I always going to be a guy’s friend and nothing more.” Strangers in public saw her as something else — a subjugated woman. They looked at her with pity, she says. Some were just baffled. “One guy asked me if I was allergic to the sun,” Hekmati says.
Abdelaziz, the New Jersey high school senior, also had her tense public encounters: angry looks, people feeling sorry for her or assuming her father ordered her to wear the hijab. “It’s not oppression; it’s not that I’m accepting degradation — it’s about self-respect,” she says. But it’s more about faith as well. She says the hijab affirms “Islam in the most respectful and purified way.”
“When you actually wear it, it opens your eyes,” she says. “It makes you want to explore your religious faith.” At times, Abdelaziz says she wonders what it would be like to attend her prom, get a tan at the beach and have a boyfriend. But she says her decision to honor her faith is already paying off. “It really feels good,” she says. “It felt like I was missing something and now I’m complete. I finally understand my purpose.”

Technorati Tags: allergic, america, beauty, car, clot, dates, geo, home, house, interesting, ISI, Islam, life, lose weight, mom, mother, muslim, muslims, NIH, oic, Pakistan, Pakistani, pakistanihousewife, parents, power, protest, Quran, sin, STR, terror, terrorists, time, US, war, weight, WHO, wife, Women

Atiqa Odho

I would like to add one more beautiful and amazingly accoumplished lady of Pakistan to the list of  ”Beautiful, Ageless Women.”

Atiqa Odho:Actress/host

I remember her playing a stunning middle class wife in PTV play “Nijjaat”. She played the role impressivley. Now after so many years we  see her taking interviews of the top personalities of Pakistan. Her ability to ask the right question at he right time and that too in a lively manner made the show popular at Geo tv. The sparkle in her beautiful eyes and the glow on the pretty face hasn’t changed a bit. She is a successful enterprenuer and owns “Odho Cosmetics”.

Beautiful, Ageless Women

Ageing gracefully is one thing but the new age ‘ageing gracefully’ as far as women are concerned, is not ageing at all. Instep takes a look at five beautiful and stylish women around us who have managed to defy time. The candles on their birthday cake may sing another story, but there are no tell tale signs as far as their looks are concerned. They are an inspiration…

Zeba Bakhtiar

Zeba Bakhtiar: Actress

Who could have forgotten the rosy cheeked and youthful Zeba Bakhtiar from Randhir Kapoor’s Rishi Kapoor starrer Henna or the Syed Noor film and Adnan Sami starrer Sargam? She was vibrant and beautiful in all senses of the word. But if you have forgotten what she looked like back then, it’s not a problem because she looks exactly the same today. Zeba is just as ethereally pretty and her calm disposition reflects very well on her creaseless, ageless skin. Zeba has gone through personal ups and downs in her personal life – her marriage to Adnan Sami Khan, the long drawn out divorce and custody battle for their son Azaan that followed – but none of it shows as far as her looks are concerned. The Quetta born Baluchi beauty is certainly someone to look up to.

Reema

Reema: Actress

Reema’s come a long, long way since she stepped out in her debut film Bulandi as a fresh faced Lollywood actress to today, when she’s a director of two films, a Lux girl and a Pakistani icon in her own right. And while she’s committed some terrible, terrible fashion and style crimes along the way – most of which can be attributed to the inherently low budgets Bollywood films have – Reema now looks drop-dead gorgeous. At the Lux Style Awards last year, her flawless makeup and jewellery free look won her a definite ‘thumbs up’ from the style police (c’mon, there’s a mental style police officer in everyone’s head!). She looks the same in her current advertisement for Lux (styled by Nabila) and even in her appearances on television shows. She has finally fit into the part of a movie star and honestly, can you even guess now how old she is? It really is a remarkable 180-degree turn!

Babra

Babra Sharif: Actress

Everytime we look at images of Babra Sharif, we’re left astounded: how does this ‘80s icon look so very, very young?She is the ageless queen, whose versatility on the small and silver screen has never gone unnoticed. She knows how to carry herself, whether it is a sizzler performance at the Lux Style Awards (2005), countless style shoots that create fantastical memories or her rare but striking appearances.

Babra Sharif is no stranger to the spotlight but as her years have increased, she has gotten more stunning and that too without a hint of narcissism – a quality that never fails to impress. Unlike Lollywood divas, Babra tends to stay away and when she does return, it is always on a spectacular note. This woman can defy age like no other.

Maaheen Khan

Maheen Khan: Designer

Maheen Khan is a one-woman guide for how to dress in an age-appropriate yet alluring manner: except as the years have gone by, it’s been harder to tell just how old Maheen is! She still looks absolutely fantastic, and is always the epitome of understated elegance. In her signature black and white wardrobe and pixie haircut, Maheen Khan proves why growing older doesn’t have to equal to letting go of yourself and looking frumpy. She’s truly defying age and no one can deny it: which is why she walked away with the Best Dressed Woman nod at the recent TRC/Ensemble show. May we all age so very gracefully!

Samina Peerzada

Samina Peerzada: Actress/Director

Director, actress and a film star like no other, Samina Peerzada never fails to turn heads, whether via Rafi Peer festivals, her public voice on issues of women, her appearance and vocal support for Karafilm Festival or just her love for all things films and theatre. But that isn’t the only attractive quality about Samina. She is forthcoming and she carries a signature that suits her and is enchanting all the same. She has made films in an industry where survival is always a struggle but Samina has challenged and done the unpredictable. And for that unfaltering spirit, irrespective of the years, Samina Peerzada continues to be an age-defying icon.

Technorati Tags: beauty, car, crime, G20, gel, geo, henna, house, interview, ISI, life, love, marriage, memories, News, NIH, office, oic, Pakistan, Pakistani, pakistanihousewife, polic, sharif, sin, STR, thenews, time, tv, US, walk, war, WHO, wife, Women

Madonna

Look at the arms of this 50 year old lady who worked out for 2 hours , six days of the week and don’t be amazed by the freshness of the face coz its the work of some cosmetic surgeon. Madonna days I’m not against plastic surgery, I’m just against discussing it’ – she is believed to have had cheek implants among other procedures.

Technorati Tags: fitness, health, madonna, Women

marriages...

I met a thirty-something friend after a year recently and was mystified at her almost overnight transformation to a svelte goddess. What added to the mystery was the erstwhile warrior princess coyly saying that she had her husband to thank for her wonder-woman look.

Wondering how much he had paid for what appeared to be an expensive makeover, I congratulated her on her very “K-commendable” reply and cattily suggested she audition for one of the Kyunki avatars on television.

“Oh, you’ve got it wrong,” she said. “We split six months ago and that’s when I suddenly realised how much time I wasted bickering  about our relationship. Now I’ve joined a gym and look better than I did in my teens. That’s the reason I thank the swine when I look in the mirror,” she said, sounding more like her old self, to my relief.

Her situation deserves some thought that why bad marriages are harder on women’s health than on men’s, so women stuck in strained relationships — marked by arguments, angry outbursts and resentment — should consider out. And this is not your usual agony aunt advice but words backed by medical wisdom.

A US study reported that women in strained marriages are more likely to have high blood pressure, obesity and other signs of a clutch of metabolic disorders called Syndrome X — pot bellies, high blood sugar, high bad cholesterol, low good cholesterol, high triglycerides (a type of blood fat) — which is a risk factor for diseases such as heart attack, stroke and diabetes.

According to the study, the depression in a bad marriage affected women in a big way, most likely because, they take the negativity more to heart and mull over it more than the men.

The study — which involved couples between 40 and 70 who had been married for an average of 20 years — found that higher the conflict, hostility and disagreement with the spouse, the higher was the depression and the risk of health problems.

Stress causes the blood vessels to constrict and increases the heart rate, leading to chronic blood pressure and other metabolic abnormalities. “It prompts hormonal changes that can raise blood pressure, redistribute fat around the waist, increase insulin resistance and play havoc with your cholesterol and other blood fats, all of which are risk factors for heart disease,” said Dr Ashok Seth, chairman, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre.

That apart, says Dr Seth, stress also causes depression that prompts lifestyle changes, such as binge eating or substance abuse. “Most people don’t even realise that they are stressed but start feeling better within days of exercising, which not only makes them physically fitter but also helps them cope with the psychological stress,” he said.

His advice to those who want to lower their heart attack and stroke risk — which is the leading killer for both men and women — is to address psychological factors along with physical risk factors such as high blood pressure and bad cholesterol.

“People should modify behaviours known to affect the metabolic syndrome —  such as a healthy diet and exercise — but it would be premature to prescribe dumping unreasonable spouses, even though it’s well established that happiness can improve physical wellbeing,” he said.

Technorati Tags: marriage, spouse, Women

‘Since you were so kind as to greet us in London at Downing Street last month, the President would like to return the favour,” announces Major-General Rashid Qureshi, President Pervez Musharraf’s PR man over the phone. Only in Pakistan could the government’s head of spin be a retired major-general. He is referring to my last encounter with the President on 28 January – when, along with a 2,000-strong, placard-waving, slogan-jeering mob, I protested on the main road outside 10 Downing Street while Musharraf discussed democracy with Gordon Brown over lunch inside. On the way in he waved at us. Clearly he’s a man who is not afraid of confrontation. Much to the justifiable fury of every journalist in Islamabad, he has now granted me an exclusive half-hour interview despite or perhaps because of the fact that I have recently described him as one of the most repressive dictators Pakistan has ever known.

On the way to the Camp Office in Rawalpindi, I cross the bridge and pass the petrol station, which mark the spots of two recent attempts on the life of the now deeply unpopular President. I have a horrible fear that, bamboozled under the spotlight of his renowned charm, I may start to simper. My ex-husband, one of the President’s most vocal critics, has already told me he thinks this is all a terrible idea. “It will be misinterpreted in Pakistan. Besides, you’ll be too soft on him,” he said.

The Camp Office turns out to be an old colonial building which used to be the HQ of the northern command under the British. With its delicately carved, wooden, double-height ceilings, sweeping central staircase, marble floors and ornate carpets, it’s not hard to see why the President chose this as his private office in Rawalpindi. His residence is just up the driveway.

A dozen straight-backed men in uniform – red waistcoats over starched cream kurtas – are ready to greet me outside. The President, I’m informed, is not quite ready so I am led to the staff office for a “tea break” with a group of army officers who make up his presidential office team. Musharraf’s personal assistant, a dashing, grey-haired, light-eyed naval commander, and a jovial head of security, also a young army officer, joke that the delay is just an excuse for them to do a little preparatory brainwashing.
My ex-husband,
Imran
Khan told
me “It will
be misinterpreted
in Pakistan. Besides,
you’ll be too soft
on him,”
A bright yellow cake, some intimidating-looking chicken vol-au-vents and chai (milky tea) are wheeled in. Major Qureshi, Musharraf’s Alastair Campbell, tucks in happily and regales me for an hour with stories about Soviet-era Pakistani military triumphs and the magnanimity and general excellence of his boss. “Any country in the world would like to have this person as their leader,” he tells us proudly.

After an hour I am shown into a huge sitting room, divided in the middle by a latticed wood screen to segregate ladies from men at more formal functions. Musharraf enters. The last time I saw him in the flesh he was in his full army regalia. Somehow his civilian clothes have diminished him. I find his brown business suit and dainty penny loafers which have replaced the sturdy army boots almost unsettling. He seems to have lost both height and swagger. And his body language seems just a touch defensive. The immaculate hair also troubles me. Boot-polish black, artfully grey at the temples, it shows signs of some work.

I start the interview on an unfortunate note. “Given that the last time you saw me, I was protesting outside No 10, I’m grateful that you’ve granted me this opportunity. It’s quite a coup.” Bad word. There’s a moment’s silence while it hangs in the air.

The President, it turns out, is very disappointed in me. For a moment I think I have been called to his office for a sound ticking-off. “I was disappointed. Very disappointed,” he says. “I was disappointed because you ought to be knowing our environment … what Pakistanis are like … what is our society. Well, it’s acceptable if a person has never visited Pakistan and doesn’t know Pakistan to have ideal views [presumably, he means idealistic views]. But I thought you ought to be knowing what Pakistan is … This is not an ideal society.”

He goes on. Mindful that I have only limited time and that there’s a man in uniform sitting at the back of the room already checking his watch before I’ve even asked my first question, I politely interrupt. I remind him that when I first met him he too was an idealist. There is strange symmetry to this visit. I last met Musharraf three days before the last elections in 2002. And now here I am, five and a half years on, three days before elections on Monday. Back then, especially when Musharraf first came to power, I was a somewhat naive supporter. Selfishly, I was relieved when he succeeded came to power by military coup on 12 October 1999. Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister he deposed, had tried to have me jailed on trumped-up, politically motivated charges of smuggling – a non-bailable offence in Pakistan.

I suspect it was to intimidate my ex-husband, who at that time was a noisy critic. I had scarpered to London before I could be arrested and was able to return with my two children to Pakistan six months later only after Musharraf seized power and the charges against me were duly dropped. More importantly, though, Musharraf took over with the express aim of cleaning up Pakistani politics. He despised the corrupt politicians as much as anyone. He immediately set up his own national accountability bureau and declared that his mission was to hold the corrupt accountable.

I’m also disappointed, I tell him. The corrupt got off scot-free. And now it looks as though he will shortly be doing business with the very same politicians he wanted to get rid of.

Disarmingly he agrees – something he does a lot of. And I sense it’s genuine rather than appeasement. He argues that he had no other choice but to deal with the existing leaders of the main parties. This is a little disingenuous. The national reconciliation ordinance which he passed in October 2007 effectively guaranteed lifelong immunity from prosecution to corrupt politicians such as Benazir Bhutto, her husband Zardari and others, and enabled her to return to Pakistan to contest elections. He asks if he is being recorded. I say yes. He hesitates, then answers tellingly, “Yes, I agree with you [that charges should not have been dropped]. But then Benazir has good contacts abroad in your country, who thought she was the future of the country.”

I press him further. Surely even in spite of pressure from outside, given his feelings about the effects of corruption on Pakistani politics, those charges should never have been dropped. There should have been a proper judicial process.

I put this to him. “No,” he replies, “because they would have all joined and then I would have been out.” At this point he looks a bit wild eyed. He quickly adds that, of course, being in power has never been his ultimate goal. How much easier it would be, he adds wistfully and a touch unconvincingly, if he’d just resigned to play golf.

A uniformed bearer offers fruit juice and warm roasted almonds. I down my juice in one gulp, then worry it may have looked unseemly. In the past four years I’d forgotten that Pakistani women are expected to overplay their femininity. I’m lounging like a bloke and downing pomegranate juice like lager.

Often he fails to see the irony in his own words, which can be unintentionally comic. Several times I have to suppress a smile. When confronted with the suggestion, for example, that he will have to work with a coalition government consisting of some the most infamous crooks in Pakistan, he responds with great sincerity, “I’m not running a martial law here. What can I do?” He adds, “My role as a president is simply the checks and balances – the seatbelts … a sort of father figure to the Prime Minister but I won’t have to see him for weeks.”

The image he paints of himself as a benign, legitimised dictator is at odds with the recent Human Rights Watch report that accuses his regime of hundreds of enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, harassment, intimidation and extrajudicial killings

Later when I point out that his old opponent Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), has vowed that if elected he will reinstate the judges who were unconstitutionally deposed by Musharraf, he retorts incredulously, “It is not a dictatorship here! How can you reinstate judges if you become prime minister? How?” This rhetorical question comes from a man who on 3 November dismissed 60 per cent of the superior court judges, including three chief justices, in anticipation of their ruling against his re-election as President while still head of the army. Many remain under house arrest.

He seems to be someone who feels painfully let down and misunderstood. This is particularly the case when he talks about my ex-husband, Imran. “You know, I liked him. But he is the most unrealistic person. I wanted to support him.” He mentions him a few times in the interview. And the strange thing is, I detect hurt. President Musharraf, dictator, despot, guardian of the West against al-Qa’ida – and all I can see are the wounded eyes of a betrayed lover when he talks about my ex. Under his regime, in the past year, Imran has been held under house arrest, jailed, then released and has had his movements restricted. Hell hath no fury like a general scorned.

I change the subject. Last time I visited him here in Rawalpindi he gave me a spookily accurate prediction of the imminent election results, which suggested information more than insight. Who will win this election? His answer is definitive. The PML-Q (the party otherwise known as the King’s Party, assembled by President Musharraf himself six years ago to legitimise his “managed” democracy) allied with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement will “certainly have the majority. Whether they’ll be able to form a government is a question mark.” This contradicts all the recent opinion polls, which have shown that the popularity of his favoured party is right down, at just 12 per cent. I point out this out to him.

He dismisses the polls. They are biased, conducted by local organisations that are against him. “They have been abusing me right from the beginning and you will never get good results from them.”

He seems increasingly paranoid. “The media have let me down … The NGOs are against me. I don’t know why. I think I have been the strongest proponent of human rights …” In fact, the only people who are not against him, according to him, are the Western leaders who he says are “absolutely supportive” and “express total solidarity”.

I don’t doubt Musharraf’s bravery or even his initial good intentions. Nor is anyone underestimating the scale of the problems that Pakistan faces today.
“It will be the saddest day for Pakistan if Benazir’s crooked widower is in power by Monday,”
I say. Musharraf reponds “At least we part on agreement.”
If anything, the impression is one of amateurishness and of a naivety that would be endearing if it had not been so profoundly damaging to his country. And in recent months he has become belligerent with local journalists. In London last month a respected Pakistani editor was castigated for asking about Rashid Rauf, the escaped terror suspect, and the fact that many believe he was deliberately freed by the police. Such impertinent journalists “should be roughed up”, he was alleged to have told the assembled crowds in response.

When I ask about the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, who is still under house arrest, he denounces him as “the scum of the earth – a third-rate man – a corrupt man”. And the lawyers’ movement? The lawyers have vowed to continue protesting on the streets and boycotting the courts until the deposed judges are reinstated and the constitution is restored to its pre-3 November status. “With hindsight,” he replies solemnly, “it was my personal error that I allowed them to go and express their views in the street… We should have controlled them in the beginning before it got out of control.” To those more used to seeing beards and white robes at protests, the images of suited, bookish-looking lawyers fighting off police batons were a memorable spectacle.

Musharraf mentions democracy a great deal. He seems sincere. He is genuinely likeable. But it seems he just can’t help himself. You can take the general out of the army but not the army out of the general. It reminds me of the Aesop fable about the scorpion and the frog. The frog gives the scorpion, who cannot swim, a lift across the river. Halfway across, the scorpion stings him. “Why did you do that?” asks the frog. “Now we’ll both die.” “I’m a scorpion; it’s my nature.”

As I leave he presents me with a clock inscribed “from the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan”. It seems an inauspicious gift from a man whose time may be up. He shakes my hand. “It will be the saddest day for Pakistan if Benazir’s crooked widower is in power by Monday,” I say. As the President walks away, he looks back. “At least we part on agreement.”
 

Technorati Tags: Benazir, benazir bhutto, blog, bus, car, chai, chicken, Chief justice, child, children, clot, Downing street, earth, election, election result, elections, fig, fight, geo, gordon brown, hell, house, husband, immunity, independent, interview, ISI, Islam, islamabad, joke, journalist, life, love, media, milk, mom, musharaf, musharraf, muslim, nawaz, nawaz sharif, News, office, oic, pain, Pakistan, Pakistani, pakistanis, polic, politicians, Politics, polls, power, president, protest, PTA, quit, rawalpindi, say yes, scorpio, security, sharif, sin, smile, STR, tea, terror, time, UK, US, walk, war, WHO, Women, zardari

Technorati Tags: apple cider vinegar, beauty, Women

ISTANBUL (AFP) – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference denounced Friday the reprinting of a profane Danish cartoon of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), warning it could lead to confrontations between Muslims and Christians.
“By reprinting these cartoons we are heading towards a bigger conflict and that shows that both sides will be hostages of their radicals,” OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a Turk, told AFP in Istanbul.
“It is not a way of improving your rights and exercising your freedoms when you use these rights for insulting the most sacred values and symbols of others and inciting hatred,” he said.
“This is a very wrong, provocative way – unacceptable.”
“The people who are doing this put themselves with the radicals, the fanatics and extremists who are using their beliefs as justification to hurt others,” Ihsanoglu said. “This is not the way to improve relations between East and West, between Islam and Christianity.”
The drawing, which depicts Mohammed with a turban resembling a bomb with a lit fuse, triggered fresh uproar in Muslim countries.
The Jeddah-based OIC is the world’s largest pan-Islamic body, with 57 members.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people in the Gaza Strip joined a Hamas rally on Friday against Danish newspapers that reprinted a blasphemous cartoon depicting the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Speaking to the crowd in the northern town of Jabaliya, Hamas MP Yussef Sharafi called on the Danish government to “apologise to Muslims for the offence to the Holy Prophet.”
On Thursday, Hamas condemned the newspapers and called for those responsible to be put on trial.
A number of Danish newspapers published the profane cartoon on Wednesday, vowing to defend freedom of expression a day after Danish police foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist.
Hamas said publication of the cartoon was an “offence to the feelings of tens of millions of Muslims.
“We call for the trial of those responsible for publishing these drawings in the Danish newspapers,” Hamas said, demanding that “official apologies be made” to Muslims.
On Tuesday, Danish police arrested a Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill the creator of the turban cartoon, Kurt Westergaard.

Technorati Tags: Cricket, health, home, humor, Islam, Kids, News, oic, Pakistani Housewife, Poetry, Politics, Recipes, religion, Tips, urdu, Women