US must take human rights absolutely seriously. Every single person is entitled to dignity and human rights. No application needed. No exclusions at all. This is our highest priority. US must radically reinvent contemporary democracy. Current systems are deeply corrupt and not responsive to the needs of the people. Representatives chosen by money and influence govern by money and influence. This is unacceptable. Direct democracy by the people is now technologically possible and should be the rule. Communities must be protected whenever they advocate for self-determination, self-development and human rights. Dissent is essential to democracy; we pledge to help it flourish.

·

FOR A US REVOLUTION

·

by Bill Quigley

·

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.”

— Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967

One. Human rights must be taken absolutely seriously. Every single person is entitled to dignity and human rights. No application needed. No exclusions at all. This is our highest priority.

Two. We must radically reinvent contemporary democracy. Current systems are deeply corrupt and not responsive to the needs of the people. Representatives chosen by money and influence govern by money and influence. This is unacceptable. Direct democracy by the people is now technologically possible and should be the rule. Communities must be protected whenever they advocate for self-determination, self-development and human rights. Dissent is essential to democracy; we pledge to help it flourish.

Three. Corporations are not people and are not entitled to human rights. Amend the US Constitution so it is clear corporations do not have constitutional or human rights. We the people must cut them down to size and so democracy can regulate their size, scope and actions.

Four. Leave the rest of the world alone. Cut the US military spending by 75 percent and bring all troops outside the US home now. Defense of the US is a human right. Global offense and global police force by the US military are not.

Eliminate all nuclear and chemical and biological weapons. Stop allowing scare tactics to build up the national security forces at home. Stop the myth that the US is somehow special or exceptional and is entitled to act differently than all other nations. The US must re-join the global family of nations as a respectful partner. The USA is one of many nations in the world. We must start acting like it.

Five. Property rights, privilege, and money-making are not as important as human rights. When current property and privilege arrangements are not just they must yield to the demands of human rights. Money-making can only be allowed when human rights are respected. Exploitation is unacceptable. There are national and global poverty lines. We must establish national and global excess lines so that people and businesses with extra houses, cars, luxuries, and incomes share much more to help everyone else be able to exercise their basic human rights to shelter, food, education and healthcare.

If that disrupts current property, privilege and money-making, so be it.

Six. Defend our earth. Stop pollution, stop pipelines, stop new interstates, and stop destroying the land, sea, and air by extracting resources from them. Rebuild what we have destroyed. If corporations will not stop voluntarily, people must stop them. The very existence of life is at stake.

Seven. Dramatically expand public spaces and reverse the privatisation of public services. Quality public education, health and safety for all must be provided by transparent accountable public systems. Starving the state is a recipe for destroying social and economic human rights for everyone but the rich.

Eight. Pull the criminal legal prison system up and out by its roots and start over. Cease the criminalisation of drugs, immigrants, poor people and people of colour. We are all entitled to be safe but the current system makes us less so and ruins millions of lives. Start over.

Nine. The US was created based on two original crimes that must be confessed and made right. Reparations are owed to Native Americans because their land was stolen and they were uprooted and slaughtered.

Reparations are owed to African Americans because they were kidnapped, enslaved and abused. The US has profited widely from these injustices and must make amends.

Ten. Everyone who wants to work should have the right to work and earn a living wage. Any workers who want to organise and advocate for change in solidarity with others must be absolutely protected from recriminations from their employer and from their government.

Finally, if those in government and those in power do not help the people do what is right, people seeking change must together exercise our human rights and bring about these changes directly. Dr. King and millions of others lived and worked for a radical revolution of values. We will as well. We respect the human rights and human dignity of others and work for a world where love and wisdom and solidarity and respect prevail. We expect those for whom the current unjust system works just fine will object and oppose and accuse people seeking dramatic change of being divisive and worse. That is to be expected because that is what happens to all groups which work for serious social change. Despite that, people will continue to go forward with determination and purpose to bring about a radical revolution of values in the USA.

Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.  You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com  

—

Source, Cross posted, Title image

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults. 

We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

The US ambassador in Afghanistan has issued an unusually blunt denial of rumours of a U.S. plan to break up Afghanistan as part of a peace deal with the Taliban. It looks Amb. Crock thinks that former Ambassador  Robert D. Blackwill is also a liar?  Our govt. has to tell us or anyone else the truth about what they have planned in their ideas of “persistent”/perpetual war.  The Pentagon has often admitted that we will be in Afghanistan for decades, if not forever.  Any attempt to get us out of there by 2014 can only end in Afghanistan’s permanent division and vicious civil war!!! 

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US ENVOY DISPELS PLAN TO DIVIDE AFGHANISTAN

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by msnbc.com staff

 ·

I guess Amb. Crock thinks that former Ambassador  Robert D. Blackwill is also a liar?  His spilling the beans in his article Plan B in Afghanistan must have been an unwelcome surprise to the secret planners.  Our govt. has yet to tell us or anyone else the truth about what they have planned in their ideas of “persistent”/perpetual war.  The Pentagon has often admitted that we will be in Afghanistan for decades, if not forever.  Any attempt to get us out of there by 2014 can only end in Afghanistan’s permanent division and vicious civil war.  By arming the Northern Alliance forces from the beginning as US proxies against the Taliban, the Bush-beleaguers created conditions for never-ending war, permanent division and civil war.  Pointing-out these obvious facts in no way dishonors America’s dead.  They are dead because they were sent to wage war for Empire under impossible conditions.  The dishonor comes with their participation in this entire dishonest affair.  That cannot be erased.  [Peter Chamberlin]

—

The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan on Tuesday condemned rumors that the United States is planning to divide the war-torn country, saying the suggestions were “lies that dishonor the sacrifice of more than 1,800 American service members who have died in the cause of a unified Afghanistan.”

Ambassador Ryan Crocker said in a statement that a “free and independent media plays a vital role in any democracy” and that Afghanistan’s media and the Afghan government spokespersons were ”important elements in our close bilateral relationship.”

But he then went on to say that, “rumors that the United States has a plan to divide Afghanistan or change its form of government are, frankly speaking, lies that dishonor the sacrifice of more than 1,800 American service members who have died in the cause of a unified Afghanistan, governed by its Constitution.”

And he added that the idea “that the United States is seeking a secret deal with the Taliban at the expense of the Afghan government and people” was “another false and absurd rumor.”

‘DEMOCRATIC AND UNIFIED’

Crocker stressed that the United States was “committed to supporting the efforts of the central government, to build a strong, secure, democratic, and unified Afghanistan.”

“We have no other aim or goal,” he added, pointing out that American taxpayers had provided billions of dollars over the past decade to support “the government and people of Afghanistan.”

Crocker appeared to be addressing reports in the Afghan media, although The New York Times also reported Thursday last week that Afghan officials were worried about the possibility the Taliban might make a “secret deal” with the United States.

“Afghanistan and the United States both support a peace process for Afghanistan. But only Afghans can decide the future of Afghanistan,” he added, according to the statement. “For a peace process to succeed, Afghans must talk to Afghans.”

He noted that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had spoken in support of the idea of the Taliban opening an office in Qatar, seen as key for peace talks to go ahead.

 —

Source, Title image

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults.

We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

·

REBUTTAL TO: KARACHI IS DOOMED, KARACHI IS INDESTRUCTIBLE …

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by Tony Lazaro 

 ·

Note for WoP readers: Time, the US weekly published a lengthy article on Jan 16^th 2012. Its titled ‘Karachi is doomed, Karachi is indestructible’. Having put up an introductory paragraph, the magazine directs its readers to access the remaining part of the post by advancing a paid subscription. Since this article carries a good amount of what’s happening in Pakistan’s largest metropolis, I do recommend readers to read this in full by taking the following link

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/01/%E2%80%98karachi-is-doomed-karachi-is-indestructible%E2%80%99/

 Interestingly there has been a response to this piece by an Australian who was recently in Karachi and who has so aptly rebutted the many half truths about this economic hub of Pakistan..

 Then I came across an introductory letter. I do not know whether it too has been jotted down by Lazaro, or by somebody else, but in any case this piece too is more near the facts.

I reproduce here, first this brief followed by the letter from Lazaro he sent to the weekly Time. [Nayyar] 

—

Hello Everyone.
I am not familiar with blogs or how they work….
I only know that I am familiar with fair play and how that should be. I am humbled at the response that my article has taken across the world.

But at this moment I really do not know where I am going with this journey, only that it has started and I will follow my gut instincts with where it goes. What is blindingly obvious is that everyone seems to know the truth, but no one wants to be seen to change it…. or start the change process.

My challenge therefore is as follows….

If the youth of Pakistan supports the “attitude of change” and the elders (who want to see a better Pakistan), support the youth, then the numbers will far outweigh the negative people (both in Pakistan and the western world), who constantly want to bring the country to its knees.

Pakistan’s future is not in political hands. It is in the hands of the people. Brave people !!!!

The challenge is how many of these brave people will hold hands together ??.

***

The Editor, Time Magazine
Dear Editor,

I recently returned from a charitable trip to Pakistan, whereby I visited both Karachi and Islamabad. I spoke with several universities, key businesses, prominent business leaders and several religious people from all generations….

On the day I returned to the office, someone had placed your magazine (January 16, 2012), on my desk. I read with interest your article on Karachi and the city in doom. For a person to have just returned from the very same place that your magazine described was somewhat bizarre, so I read with great detail your writer (Andrew Marshall’s) account.

Let me begin by saying that I often flick through your magazine and find the articles of great interest, but on this particular day and this particular article, I found certain comments to be both one sided and indeed very negative. I say that because I saw a different Pakistan to what was portrayed in your article. I do not and will not comment on the political or religious problems that the country faces, but I will go so far as to say that not everything is as bad as the image that your magazine paints.

Sure there are deaths in the cities. Please show me a city in the world that is free from political fighting and unrest.

Sure there are differences in the political party opinions. Please show me a country in the world where the political parties agree.

Sure the innocent are suffering. Please show me a country in the world where wealth and power is equal and the innocent don’t suffer.
Sure corruption is in Pakistan. Please show me a country in the world that is corruption free.

My list could go on, but my point is that Pakistan does have problems…but so does every other country in the world in some way or another. However, in the case of ALL other nations, there are often good things to report and the media goes out of its way to promote these good things across the globe, whenever possible. The ridiculous amount of shootings in the USA are balanced off by the success of Google, Microsoft and Apple. The financial dilemmas of Greece are lost in the marketing of the Greek Islands as a holiday destination of choice. The child slave industry of India, is brushed under the carpet in favour of the nation’s growth in the global software boom. What I am trying to say, is that someone needs to look further into Pakistan and see that there are millions of great stories to write about, which would portray the country in a different light, to that what is being portrayed by your article.

When I was in Pakistan, I visited a towel manufacturing company (Alkaram Towels). They produced some $60million in export in 2011 and are aiming at $85million in 2012. A substantial increase in sales…in a recession I would remind you. The company was started by the current Chairman, Mr. Mehtab Chawla, at the tender age of nine, after his father passed away. Today the very man employs 3000 staff. Now that’s a story.

I visited universities of NED, Hamdard, Karachi, Szabist and NUST. The students are unbelievably intelligent. They spend their spare time developing APPS for android and apple. They are involved in cutting edge technology and no one in the world knows this. Why not send a reporter to Pakistan to look into this. Why not research good things in this nation, rather than just the bad things. At NUST (National Institution for Science and Technology – Islamabad) there were 38,000 applications for medicine. There are only 83 seats for the medicine course on offer. The competition is unbelievable. In short it pushes the best to be even better. But the world doesn’t know this. Why ? Because no one wants to report on it, or no one knows about it…or both !!

Please do not get me wrong. I understand that news is news, but it is high time that the western world stopped promoting these terrorists and political wars in Pakistan and started to write something that would help the nation. Something positive. If we really care about global partnerships and economic growth, then I suggest we try and give Pakistan a helping hand.

There are 180 million people in Pakistan, 65% are under the age of 25. The youth of Pakistan is its strength.. it is like a sleeping giant. If you think that India is a booming nation. I suggest you stop a second and look at Pakistan. Given a little help from the western world, Pakistan can become a dominant economy. She doesn’t want aid and she doesn’t need money… she just wants the chance to be seen in a different light.  I believe we have a fundamental obligation to assist. The only question is, who will reach out first.

Warmest regards,
Tony Lazaro
Managing Director
Rising Stars Management Group
Tel:  02 8824 7000
Fax: 02 8824 7766

www.risingstars.com.au

 —

Source, Title image

Related Post:

1. Pakistan. The Calculus has Changed [Viewpoint India]

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults.

We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

Pakistan’s Balochistan Province is on the Arabian Sea; and the Strait of Hormuz lies to the east, at the border with Iran. Around 20 per cent of the world’s daily oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has threatened to close after the latest wave of sanctions [EPA]. The only point of interest on the coast is the port of Gwadar, which was built and commissioned with Chinese technical and financial support in May 2007. To that point, the project cost a total of $280 million. Several piers are currently in operation, and the port’s infrastructure is under construction. One purpose of the port is to serve as a freight hub for raw hydrocarbons destined for Pakistan’s domestic market. Also, the local media has reported that a naval base for the Pakistani and Chinese navies will be located there.

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ANALYSING PAKISTAN’S POSITION ON POSSIBLE US-IRANIAN CLASH

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by Natalya Zamarayeva 

 ·

According to US Central Command, on January 10, 2012 a U.S. Navy carrier strike group entered the Indian Ocean en route to the Arabian Sea. The USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group is already sailing those waters. This move was precipitated by several factors.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran’s nuclear program is military in nature. Iran denies all allegations. Concerned about the situation, EU countries have agreed to ban the import of Iranian oil. In response, Tehran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes 40% of all maritime oil shipments from the Persian Gulf. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States will respond if Iran tries to close the Strait.

It is no less important to analyze Pakistan’s position regarding these developments from various points of view: international, regional and defense of national political and economic interests.

So, the Strait of Hormuz: Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province is on the Arabian Sea; and the Strait of Hormuz lies to the east, at the border with Iran. The only point of interest on the coast is the port of Gwadar, which was built and commissioned with Chinese technical and financial support in May 2007. To that point, the project cost a total of $280 million. Several piers are currently in operation, and the port’s infrastructure is under construction. One purpose of the port is to serve as a freight hub for raw hydrocarbons destined for Pakistan’s domestic market. Also, the local media has reported that a naval base for the Pakistani and Chinese navies will be located there.

First of all, the potential conflict would affect Pakistan-Iran relations; more precisely, it concerns Iran’s nuclear program and hydrocarbons. Secondly, it affects the future of Pakistan-China cooperation.

Welcome to an edgy world – where a single incident at an energy “chokepoint” could set a region aflame, provoking bloody encounters, boosting oil prices, and putting the global economy at risk. With energy demand on the rise and sources of supply dwindling, we are, in fact, entering a new epoch – the Geo-Energy Era – in which disputes over vital resources will dominate world affairs. In 2012 and beyond, energy and conflict will be bound ever more tightly together, lending increasing importance to the key geographical flashpoints in our resource-constrained world.

In late December 2011, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said that “…our relations with Iran are special and have been strengthened in all areas. Pakistan has always supported a state’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear technology in accordance with its international obligations.” “Pakistan believes that the issues related to Iran’s nuclear program should be resolved through peaceful means, and a mechanism already exists to do that. Escalation of the situation will not be in our interest.”

Islamabad also spoke unambiguously about the gas pipeline. “Our relations with Iran are special and there is no policy change. There is a desire to accelerate completion of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, given that we are an energy-deficient country. Early completion of the project is most desirable.” Anticipating that the project will be resumed, Islamabad opened its border with Iran on December 18, 2011. It was closed in late September 2011 after a shooting incident in Mastung.

Pakistan’s natural gas shortage has not only slowed growth in many sectors, it has affected virtually all spheres of life. During the election campaign in early 2008, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party generously promised to solve the hydrocarbon supply problem and provide them to the populace. Summertime fuel shortages forced the government to limit supplies for the domestic market. As a result, the government faced massive protests calling for urgent action or dismissal of the federal cabinet of ministers.

Construction of the pipeline, which has a design capacity of 21.5 million cubic meters of gas per day, has already been delayed 10 years, and further delay could be disastrous for the country, which is facing a natural gas shortage. Today, individual voices are optimistically claiming that the project, which was originally scheduled for completion in 2014, might be completed a year earlier and start pumping gas in the second half of 2013.

Pakistani Oil Minister Asim Hussain confirmed in December 2011 that all of the necessary surveying work for construction of the 790-kilometer gas pipeline in Pakistan has been completed. One reason for the delay has been a lack of funding. Pakistan has been desperately seeking foreign investments to complete the project. In 2011, Islamabad found a satisfactory sponsor in Beijing. China has also guaranteed to provide Pakistan with financial assistance to construct the pipeline. Islamabad plans to import $200-$250 million in gas each month, which adds up to $3 billion annually.

Islamabad’s need for the Pakistan-Iran pipeline remains very high because it has no other way of meeting the growing demand for energy. Moreover, the draft Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline is expected to be much better for Islamabad than the TAPI project because, as its oil minister says, “…Iran guaranteed in negotiations that the price of gas delivered by the Pakistan-Iran pipeline will be lower than that envisaged for TAPI, and there is a high likelihood that Tehran will agree to Islamabad’s proposal.” China’s financial advisor is ICPC, and Pakistan’s advisor is Habib Bank Limited.

It is inconceivable that Islamabad would abandon the project now. Pakistan initiated it despite threats from the Obama administration, which is adamantly opposed to the resumption of work that would threaten the economic sanctions. The United States is pursuing its own geopolitical interests and promoting nonviable alternatives for Pakistan that would place an additional burden on its treasury. China is also pursuing its geostrategic interests by agreeing to fund the gas project, particularly in the Pakistani province of Balochistan.

Pakistan’s civilian government has been negotiating construction of Gwadar Port with China ever since coming to power in 2008, but it achieved a breakthrough in the second half of 2011. For China, Gwadar means a trade outlet to the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Development of the port is important in and of itself, but that alone is not sufficient. Over the long term, it will be necessary to develop a transport infrastructure (rail, highway and air) and telecommunications networks.

Full implementation of the project in the 21st century implies the development of a backbone network from Gwadar eastward to Urumqi-Beijing-Shanghai, giving China an alternative trade corridor to the Gulf countries and Eastern Europe. This route is much shorter than the Straits of Malacca, which it currently uses. Pakistan’s geopolitical location is important to Beijing because it is at the crossroads of Central, South and West Asia. And that raises the question—will the countries in the region let anyone make waves in the Strait of Hormuz?

—

Related Posts:

1. Pakistan speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying U.S. 2. The Politics Of Gas Pipelines In Asia

Source, Title image (1), Image (2) and caption text

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults.

We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

It’s nice when it’s not just mighty China but Russia also, with its thermonuclear missiles, advocating peace throughout the world and assuring the public that it has no hegemonic ambitions. China got a little offended when it learned that another country considers itself even more peaceable than super-peace loving China. That’s why Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin hastened to clarify what ​​Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said and drew attention to the media’s mistaken interpretation of his remarks.

·

TIME FOR THE EAGLE TO COME DOWN OFF THE MOUNTAIN TOP

·

by Konstantin Penzev

·

At the regularly scheduled briefing in October 2011, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Liu Weimin said that “China has no intention nor energy to seek global leadership.”

I need to make it very clear that I sympathize with the Chinese government’s position. Maybe in the future the international community will examine its position and the entire Chinese government will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for extraordinary efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation among peoples. US President Barack Obama got just that award in 2009. Now, the Obama administration is preparing a military invasion of Iran, but that’s a trivial detail. No one can possibly argue that America’s current president isn’t strengthening cooperation among nations. He may have a somewhat unique understanding of the word “cooperation,” but he admitted honestly and openly that he smoked marijuana in his youth. Surely such an open and honest person can’t be an evil, trigger-happy maniac. Maybe he made a little mistake, but who hasn’t?

It’s wonderful that China has neither the intent nor the energy to seek global leadership. But does it mean that after hearing such a sincere confession of peaceableness President Obama will abandon his “Return to Asia” strategy, cease construction on the military base in Darwin and stop putting together a military block against China? 

Liu Weimin spoke in response to a statement by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who had decided to assure the international community that Russia is a peaceloving country. Putin emphaticallysaid: “You know, I have said many times to those who try to scare us with the Chinese threat—mainly our Western partners—that the modern world is not exclusively focused on fighting for the mineral riches of Siberia and the Far East, attractive though they are. They are vying for global leadership, and Russia is not going to race China to it. It has other rivals in that business, so let them settle it between themselves.”

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has decided to assure the international community that Russia, is a peace loving country. As said Putin emphatically: “You know, I have said many times to those who try to scare us with the Chinese threat—mainly our Western partners—that the modern world is not exclusively focused on fighting for the mineral riches of Siberia and the Far East, attractive though they are. They are vying for global leadership, and Russia is not going to race China to it. It has other rivals in that business, so let them settle it between themselves.”

It’s nice when it’s not just mighty China but Russia also, with its thermonuclear missiles, advocating peace throughout the world and assuring the public that it has no hegemonic ambitions. China got a little offended when it learned that another country considers itself even more peaceable than super-peaceloving China. That’s why Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin hastened to clarify what ​​Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said and drew attention to the media’s mistaken interpretation of his remarks.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin  who in his Oct 2011 press briefing pointed out the discrepancy between some reports and the Russian Premier Putin’s original remarks and emphasized China’s role as an important strategic partner of Russia, expressing satisfaction over China-Russia good-neighborly friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and the sound development momentum of bilateral strategic partnership of coordination and applauded, in particular, the two countries’ accommodation of each other’s concerns and active pursuit of win-win outcomes in bilateral cooperation.” And finally that “China has no intention nor energy to seek global leadership.

“I have noted the discrepancy,” said Liu Weimin, “between some reports and Prime Minister Putin’s original remarks. He emphasized in the interview China’s role as an important strategic partner of Russia, expressed satisfaction with China-Russia good-neighborly friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and the sound development momentum of bilateral strategic partnership of coordination and applauded, in particular, the two countries’ accommodation of each other’s concerns and active pursuit of win-win outcomes in bilateral cooperation.” After that remark, Liu Weimin spoke the sentence I quoted above: “China has no intention nor energy to seek global leadership.”

While the governments of Russia and China are competing to see which is the most peaceable, the humblest and the least ambitious, the US government is preparing to invade Iran and, probably, Syria as well. As we know, tyranny is rampant and human rights are being violated in Syria, and it won’t appreciate the charms of democracy until it has experienced the joy of being bombed.

Naturally, after US bombers bring Iran and Syria peace, prosperity and democracy, other countries where there is something amiss with rights and freedoms will get their turn. For example, China is violating the rights of the Tibetans. In addition, China is the United States’ largest creditor, which makes the Tibetan issue a special tragedy. All is not well in Russia, either. Yes, it’s time to face the truth. Russia has a lot of oil and gas and a bad human rights record. And it has that awful Mr. Putin, who will soon become president again…

So. About Russia.

Russia really is a peaceable country. However, her love of peace does not mean that the administration in Washington has no intention of inculcating democracy in it, perhaps with a “color revolution.” The US government has not chosen the “color” path because it has lost faith in the effectiveness of bombing, but because an attempt to bomb Russia back to the stone age could result in the United States being set back to the early Paleolithic. All of those Russian nuclear weapons and the failed Nazi blitzkrieg of the recent past fail to inspire optimism in the Pentagon.

In Russia, therefore, Washington is inclined to rely more on a “color revolution” than the direct use of force. Are there examples? Certainly! I have a lot of them.

For example, the Obama administration intends on creating a fund to support Russian civil society. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Melia spoke about that during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on December 14, 2011. The fund will have $50 million. According to Melia, the money will go to non-governmental organizations committed to a more pluralistic and open society in Russia. Melia also mentioned that since 2009 the US government has allocated about $160 million to support democracy and civil society in Russia.

In my opinion, a $160 million investment in Russian democracy is a cheap price to pay for the profits Washington expects to receive by establishing a civil society in Russia under US control. But $160 million obviously isn’t all. Much larger amounts pass through intelligence channels, etc.

Here’s another example. In 2009, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) gave Russian human rights organizations grants totaling $3,785,847. The NED is a private non-profit foundation which seeks to promote and strengthen democratic institutions throughout the world. Annually, the NED makes more than 1000 grants to support the projects of non-governmental organizations abroad that are working for democratic goals in more than 90 countries. As one of its directors, Alan Weinstein, has admitted, the foundation was created by the State Department to do openly what the CIA previously did covertly.

In June 2010, NED’s official website posted a report on the foundation’s expenditures in 2009. The total amount of grants corresponds to a figure of about 115,468,334 rubles. If you’re interested, you can visit the site and see a list of the recipients.

After that, it shouldn’t be surprising that some people on the Internet track materials published on government—and non-government—websites, and, as they say, “talk trash” in the comments. The NED paid at least $72,000 for that in 2009.

So while the wise Chinese monkey and the easy-going Russian bear are competing to be the most peaceloving, the angry American eagle is sitting on a mountain top and sharpening its claws and beak in anticipation of some good pickings. What do I mean by that? In China’s era of historical materialism, Chairman Mao liked to tell the parable of a wise monkey who also sat on a high mountain and watched two tigers fighting. The monkey was China and the tigers were the United States and the Soviet Union.

As we know, wisdom is contagious. Now Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is the one who says (I repeat): “They are vying for global leadership, and Russia is not going to race China to it. It has other rivals in that business, so let them settle it between themselves.” What is that if not the famous Chinese parable of the wise monkey? Because Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is also chairman of the United Russia party, whose symbol is the brown bear, the Russian parable is about a wise brown bear that climbed a mountain and decided to watch the angry American eagle fight the post-Maoist monkey.

And that leads to a question. After the eagle has dealt with its Chinese creditor, won’t it fly to the mountaintop and peck out the wise bear’s sharp eyes? Isn’t it about time to come down off the mountain and force the US State Department to become peaceable?

I fully support Liu Weimin’s view that China is an important strategic partner of Russia. Sooner or later, it will be necessary to force the United States to become peaceable, and I suspect that the world’s two most peaceloving countries—China and Russia—will have to be the ones that do it. However, that’s a topic for another discussion.

—

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 US surveillance drone crashed near the Pak Afghan border inside the Pakistani territory near Chaman in Balochistan. The drone, an Unnamed Aerial vehicle was carrying two cameras for spying purpose. While flying over Pak afghan border it suddenly came down due to some technical fault. Though it did not cause any casualties, its wreckage was taken into custody by Frontier Corps for investigation. The incident leads observers to conclude that US drones are violating Pakistani border for surveillance purpose and further intensify the tension in Pak-US relations. [In the mage above a Pakistani security officer examines the crashed U.S. surveillance drone in the town of Chaman near the Afghan border. (Asghar Achakzai, AFP/Getty Images)

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THE CRASH AND BURN FUTURE OF ROBOT WARFARE :: WHAT 70 DRONES TELL US ABOUT THE NEW AMERICAN WAY OF WAR

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by Nick Turse

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YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN … OR DO YOU?

 How missions are carried out — and sometimes fail — is apparent from the declassified reports, including one provided to TomDispatch by the Air Force detailing a June 2011 crash.  Late that month, a Predator drone took off from Jalalabad Air Base in Afghanistan to carry out a surveillance mission in support of ground forces.  Piloted by a member of the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the robotic craft ran into rough weather, causing the pilot to ask for permission to abandon the troops below. 

 His commander never had a chance to respond.  Lacking weather avoidance equipment found on more sophisticated aircraft or on-board sensors to clue the pilot in to rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, and with a sandstorm interfering with ground radar, “severe weather effects” overtook the Predator.  In an instant, the satellite link between pilot and plane was severed.  When it momentarily flickered back to life, the crew could see that the drone was in an extreme nosedive.  They then lost the datalink for a second and final time.  A few minutes later, troops on the ground radioed in to say that the $4 million drone had crashed near them.

A month earlier, a Predator drone took off from the tiny African nation of Djibouti in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes operations in Afghanistan as well as Yemen, Djibouti, and Somalia, among other nations.  According to documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, about eight hours into the flight, the mission crew noticed a slow oil leak.  Ten hours later, they handed the drone off to a local aircrew whose assignment was to land it at Djibouti’s Ambouli Airport, a joint civilian/military facility adjacent to Camp Lemonier, a U.S. base in the country.

That mission crew — both the pilot and sensor operator — had been deployed from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada and had logged a combined 1,700 hours flying Predators.  They were considered “experienced” by the Air Force.  On this day, however, the electronic sensors that measure their drone’s altitude were inaccurate, while low clouds and high humidity affected its infrared sensors and set the stage for disaster. 

An investigation eventually found that, had the crew performed proper instrument cross-checks, they would have noticed a 300-400 foot discrepancy in their altitude.  Instead, only when the RPA broke through the clouds did the sensor operator realize just how close to the ground it was.  Six seconds later, the drone crashed to earth, destroying itself and one of its Hellfire missiles.

Storms, clouds, humidity, and human error aren’t the only natural dangers for drones.  In a November 2008 incident, a mission crew at Kandahar Air Field launched a Predator on a windy day.  Just five minutes into the flight, with the aircraft still above the sprawling American mega-base, the pilot realized that the plane had already deviated from its intended course.  To get it back on track, he initiated a turn that — due to the aggressive nature of the maneuver, wind conditions, drone design, and the unbalanced weight of a missile on just one wing — sent the plane into a roll. Despite the pilot’s best efforts, the craft entered a tailspin, crashed on the base, and burst into flames.

GOING ROGUE

On occasion, RPAs have simply escaped from human control.  Over the course of eight hours on a late February day in 2009, for example, five different crews passed off the controls of a Predator drone, one to the next, as it flew over Iraq.  Suddenly, without warning, the last of them, members of the North Dakota Air National Guard at Hector International Airport in Fargo, lost communication with the plane.  At that point no one — not the pilot, nor the sensor operator, nor a local mission crew — knew where the drone was or what it was doing.  Neither transmitting nor receiving data or commands, it had, in effect, gone rogue.  Only later was it determined that a datalink failure had triggered the drone’s self-destruct mechanism, sending it into an unrecoverable tailspin and crash within 10 minutes of escaping human control.

In November 2009, a Predator launched from Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan lost touch with its human handlers 20 minutes after takeoff and simply disappeared.  When the mission crew was unable to raise the drone, datalink specialists were brought in but failed to find the errant plane.  Meanwhile, air traffic controllers, who had lost the plane on radar, could not even locate its transponder signal.  Numerous efforts to make contact failed. 

Two days later, at the moment the drone would have run out of fuel, the Air Force declared the Predator “lost.”  It took eight days for its wreckage to be located.   

CRASH COURSE

In mid-August 2004, while drone operations in the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility were running at high tempo, a Predator mission crew began hearing a cascade of warning alarms indicating engine and alternator failure, as well as a possible engine fire.  When the sensor operator used his camera to scan the aircraft, it didn’t take long to spot the problem.  Its tail had burst into flames.  Shortly afterward, it became uncontrollable and crashed.

In January 2007, a Predator drone was flying somewhere in the CENTCOM region (above one of 20 countries in the Greater Middle East).  About 14 hours into a 20-hour mission, the aircraft began to falter.  For 15 minutes its engine was failing, but the information it was sending back remained within normal parameters, so the mission crew failed to notice.  Only at the last minute did they become aware that their drone was dying. 

 As an investigation later determined, an expanding crack in the drone’s crankshaft caused the engine to seize up.  The pilot put the aircraft into a glide toward an unpopulated area.  Higher headquarters then directed that he should intentionally crash it, since a rapid reaction force would not be able to reach it quickly and it was carrying two Hellfire missiles as well as unspecified “classified equipment.”  Days later, its remains were recovered.

THE CRASH AND BURN FUTURE OF ROBOT WARFARE

In spite of all the technical limitations of remote-controlled war spelled out in the Air Force investigation files, the U.S. is doubling down on drones.  Under the president’s new military strategy, the Air Force is projected to see its share of the budgetary pie rise and flying robots are expected to be a major part of that expansion.

Already, counting the Army’s thousands of tiny drones, one in three military aircraft – close to 7,500 machines – are robots.  According to official figures provided to TomDispatch, roughly 285 of them are Air Force Predator, Reaper, or Global Hawk drones.  The Air Force’s arsenal also includes more advanced Sentinels,Avengers, and other classified unmanned aircraft.  A report published by the Congressional Budget Office last year, revealed that “the Department of Defense plans to purchase about 730 new medium-sized and large unmanned aircraft systems” during the next 10 years. 

Over the last decade, the United States has increasingly turned to drones in an effort to win its wars.  The Air Force investigation files examined by TomDispatch suggest a more extensive use of drones in Iraq than has previously been reported.  But in Iraq, as in Afghanistan, America’s preeminent wonder weapon failed to bring the U.S. mission anywhere close to victory. 

Effective as the spearhead of a program to cripple al-Qaeda in Pakistan, drone warfare in that country’s tribal borderlands has also alienated almost the entire population of 190 million.  In other words, an estimated 2,000 suspected or identified guerrillas (as well as untold numbers of civilians) died.  The populace of a key American ally grew ever more hostile and no one knows how many new militants in search of revenge the drone strikes may have created, though the numbers are believed to be significant.

Despite a decade of technological, tactical, and strategic refinements and improvements, Air Force and allied CIA personnel watching computer monitors in distant locations have continually failed to discriminate between armed combatants and innocent civilians and, as a result, the judge-jury-executioner drone assassination program is widely considered to have run afoul of international law.

In addition, drone warfare seems to be creating a sinister system of embedded economic incentives that may lead to increasing casualty figures on the ground.  “In some targeting programs, staffers have review quotas — that is, they must review a certain number of possible targets per given length of time,” The Atlantic’s Joshua Foust recently wrote of the private contractors involved in the process.  “Because they are contractors,” he explains, “their continued employment depends on their ability to satisfy the stated performance metrics. So they have a financial incentive to make life-or-death decisions about possible kill targets just to stay employed. This should be an intolerable situation, but because the system lacks transparency or outside review it is almost impossible to monitor or alter.”

As flight hours rise year by year, these stark drawbacks are compounded by a series of technical glitches and vulnerabilities that are ever more regularly coming to light.  These include: Iraqi insurgents hacking drone video feeds, a virulent computer virus infecting the Air Force’s unmanned fleet, large percentages of drone pilots suffering from “high operational stress,” a friendly fire incident in which drone operators killed two U.S. military personnel, increasing numbers of crashes, and the possibility of an Iranian drone-hijacking, as well as those more than 70 catastrophic mishaps detailed in Air Force accident investigation documents.

Over the last decade, a more-is-better mentality has led to increased numbers of drones, drone bases, drone pilots, and drone victims, but not much else.  Drones may be effective in terms of generating body counts, but they appear to be even more successful in generating animosity and creating enemies.

The Air Force’s accident reports are replete with evidence of the flaws inherent in drone technology, and there can be little doubt that, in the future, ever more will come to light.  A decade’s worth of futility suggests that drone warfare itself may already be crashing and burning, yet it seems destined that the skies will fill with drones and that the future will bring more of the same.

Copyright 2012 Nick Turse

Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com.  An award-winning journalist, his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, and regularly at TomDispatch. This article is the fifth in his new series on the changing face of American empire, which is being underwritten by Lannan Foundation. You can follow him on Twitter @NickTurse, on Tumblr, and on Facebook. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch and join also on Facebook. 

Previous: The Crash and Burn Future of Robot Warfare

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

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We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

THE CRASH AND BURN FUTURE OF ROBOT WARFARE :: WHAT 70 DRONES TELL US ABOUT THE NEW AMERICAN WAY OF WAR

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by Nick Turse

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 A note fromTom Engelhardt for WoP readers:

After almost two months in abeyance and the (possibly temporary) loss of Shamsi Air Base for its air war, the CIA is again cranking up its drone operations in the Pakistani tribal borderlands.  The first two attacks of 2012 were launched within 48 hours of each other, reportedly killing 10 ___s, and wounding at least four ___s.  Yes, that’s right, the U.S. is killing ___s in Pakistan.  These days, the dead there are regularly identified in press accounts as “militants” or “suspected militants” and often, quoting never-named Pakistani or other “intelligence sources,” as “foreigners” or “non-Pakistanis.”  They just about never have names, and the CIA’s robots never get close enough to their charred bodies to do whatever would be the dehumanizing techno-equivalent of urinating on them.

It all sounds so relatively clean.  Last year, there were 75 such clean attacks, 303 since 2004, killing possibly thousands of ___s in those borderlands.  In fact, the world of death and destruction always tends to look clean and “precise” — if you keep your distance, if you remain in the heavens like the implacable gods of yore or thousands of miles from your targets like the “pilots” of these robotic planes and the policy makers who dispatch them.

As Washington attempts to limit the damage done by the now-infamous YouTube video which apparently depicts US marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters, are the inevitable outcome of an unjustified war. This is not a group of four or five sociopaths who somehow made it through screening and got into deployment in the service of the United States. This is the result of the inevitable training that is necessary to get men and women to take part in a war that is not defensive and a war that has no reasonable moral or legal justification.

On the ground, things are of course far messier, nastier, more disturbingly human.  The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has estimated that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have, over the years, killed at least 168 children.  In a roiled and roiling situation in that country, with the military and the civilian government at odds, with coup rumors in the air and borders still closed to U.S. Afghan War supplies (since an “incident” in which American air strikes killed up to 26 Pakistani troops), the deeply unpopular drone attacks only heighten tensions.  Whomever they may kill — including al-Qaeda figures – they also intensify anger and make the situation worse in the name of making it better.

They are, by their nature, blowback weapons and their image of high-tech, war-winning precision here in the U.S. undoubtedly has an instant blowback effect on those who loose them.  The drones can’t help but offer them a dangerous and deceptive feeling of omnipotence, a feeling that — legality be damned – anything is possible.

If, as Nick Turse has long been arguing in his reportage on our latest wonder weapons, drones are, in the end, counterproductive tools of war, this has yet to sink in here.  After all, our military planners are now projecting an investment of at least $40 billion in the burgeoning drone industry over the next decade for more than 700 medium- and large-size drones (and who knows how much is to go into smaller versions of the same).

Turse’s work on drones in his TomDispatch series on the changing face of empire relies on seldom noted realities hidden away in U.S. Air Force documents.  He has a way of bringing the robotic planes down to earth.  They are, as he has written, wonder weapons with wings of clay. (To catch Timothy MacBain’s latest Tomcast audio interview in which Turse discusses why drone warfare is anything but failure-proof, click here, or download it to your iPod  .) 

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American fighter jets screamed over the Iraqi countryside heading for the MQ-1 Predator drone, while its crew in California stood by helplessly.  What had begun as an ordinary reconnaissance mission was now taking a ruinous turn.  In an instant, the jets attacked and then it was all over.  The Predator, one of the Air Force’s workhorse hunter/killer robots, had been obliterated.

An account of the spectacular end of that nearly $4 million drone in November 2007 is contained in a collection of Air Force accident investigation documents recently examined by TomDispatch.  They catalog more than 70 catastrophic Air Force drone mishaps since 2000, each resulting in the loss of an aircraft or property damage of $2 million or more. 

These official reports, some obtained by TomDispatch through the Freedom of Information Act, offer new insights into a largely covert, yet highly touted war-fighting, assassination, and spy program involving armed robots that are significantly less reliable than previously acknowledged.  These planes, the latest wonder weapons in the U.S. military arsenal, are tested, launched, and piloted from a shadowy network of more than 60 bases spread around the globe, often in support of elite teams of special operations forces.  Collectively, the Air Force documents offer a remarkable portrait of modern drone warfare, one rarely found in a decade of generally triumphalist or awestruck press accounts that seldom mention the limitations of drones, much less their mission failures.

The aerial disasters described draw attention not only to the technical limitations of drone warfare, but to larger conceptual flaws inherent in such operations.  Launched and landed by aircrews close to battlefields in places like Afghanistan, the drones are controlled during missions by pilots and sensor operators — often multiple teams over many hours — from bases in places like Nevada and North Dakota.  They are sometimes also monitored by “screeners” from private security contractors at stateside bases like Hurlburt Field in Florida.  (A recent McClatchy report revealed that it takes nearly 170 people to keep a single Predator in the air for 24 hours.)

In other words, drone missions, like the robots themselves, have many moving parts and much, it turns out, can and does go wrong.  In that November 2007 Predator incident in Iraq, for instance, an electronic failure caused the robotic aircraft to engage its self-destruct mechanism and crash, after which U.S. jets destroyed the wreckage to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.  In other cases, drones — officially known as remotely piloted aircraft, or RPAs — broke down, escaped human control and oversight, or self-destructed for reasons ranging from pilot error and bad weather to mechanical failure in Afghanistan, Djibouti, the Gulf of Aden, Iraq, Kuwait, and various other unspecified or classified foreign locations, as well as in the United States.

In 2001, Air Force Predator drones flew 7,500 hours.  By the close of last year, that number topped 70,000.  As the tempo of robotic air operations has steadily increased, crashes have, not surprisingly, become more frequent.  In 2001, just two Air Force drones were destroyed in accidents.  In 2008, eight drones fell from the sky.  Last year, the number reached 13.  (Accident rates are, however, dropping according to an Air Force report relying on figures from 2009.)

Keep in mind that the 70-plus accidents recorded in those Air Force documents represent only drone crashes investigated by the Air Force under a rigid set of rules. Many other drone mishaps have not been included in the Air Force statistics.  Examples include a haywire MQ-9 Reaper drone that had to be shot out of the Afghan skies by a fighter jet in 2009, a remotely-operated Navy helicopter that went down in Libya last June, an unmanned aerial vehicle whose camera was reportedly taken by Afghan insurgents after a crash in August 2011, an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel lost during a spy mission in Iran last December, and the recent crash of an MQ-9 Reaper in the Seychelles Islands.

Next: What 70 Downed Drones Tell Us About the New American Way of War

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

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DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults. 

We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

Pollination: it’s vital to life on Earth, but largely unseen by the human eye. Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shows us the intricate world of pollen and pollinators with gorgeous high-speed images from his film “Wings of Life,” inspired by the vanishing of one of nature’s primary pollinators, the honeybee.

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Its something absolutely amazing.  This is why your garden matters. This starts out slow, but at about 3 minutes and 20 seconds into this video clip you will be blown away.  I promise! Pollination Like You’ve Never Seen it Before

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WHY YOUR GARDEN MATTERS

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by Mike  McGroarty

.

Mike is a professional gardener who circulates highly informative and practical tips, pics and videos to his mailing list subscribers. Amongst his selling list there are plants which he distributes free to his friends, clients, and email subscribers. This week he sent me a beautiful video on secrets of the world of pollination. I must say I was fully captivated to view this, so I decided to put up on this blog. I do hope you too would like it. Here now is the video.

Once you have viewed this [it is available in the full screen mode and if you click on the mode, you will enjoy the TV screen quality].

So on you go, happy watching. [Nayyar]

_

YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

Wonders of Pakistan supports freedom of expression and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply in case of a violation of WoP Comments Policy. We also moderate hate speech, libel and gratuitous insults. 

We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

The restive province is effectively under the control of the security establishment. The killing and abduction of young Baloch men indicate that the establishment is again trying to resolve the situation through the barrel of a gun. The result is that the Baloch feel even more oppressed, repressed and suppressed. It is possible though to argue that a military operation for restoring or establishing the writ of the government in an area of conflict is somewhat justified but imposing the `will` of the establishment, masquerading in a national security state as the writ of the government, cannot be justified. In Balochistan`s case, the will of the establishment has been against the will of the people which is for a social security or welfare state.

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A POLITICAL DIALOGUE (NOT A MILITARY SOLUTION) FOR  BALOCHISTAN

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by Syed Fazl-e-Haider

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THE military handling of Balochistan is pushing Baloch nationalists into the separatist camp. All the apparent `kill and dump` policy is achieving is to kill any possibility of reconciliation and dump any chance of peace.

The real problem lies in the mindset underpinning the approach to handling the Balochistan crisis the frame of mind created by the national security paradigm that gives the security and intelligence agencies a greater role. Only if this mindset is changed can the disgruntled youth of Balochistan be brought back into the national mainstream.

Balochistan has always remained on the country`s political periphery. Over-centralism, a unitary type of governance and the arbitrary nature of the decision-making process in Islamabad have alienated the young of Balochistan. A province, already at the receiving end, is now receiving the bullet-riddled bodies of its people. The `mysterious kidnappings of political activists and extra-judicial killings are only fanning anti-federation flames.

Four insurgencies have previously been witnessed in Balochistan: in 1948, 1958, 1962 and 1973. Four military operations were undertaken but these only resulted in a worse mess and in deepening the sense of deprivation, alienation and frustration in the province. Now, the province is facing another insurgency backed by separatists operating under different names including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF).

Meanwhile, the restive province is effectively under the control of the security establishment. The killing and abduction of young Baloch men indicate that the establishment is again trying to resolve the situation through the barrel of a gun. The result is that the Baloch feel even more oppressed, repressed and suppressed.

It is possible to argue that a military operation for restoring or establishing the writ of the government in an area of conflict is somewhat justified but imposing the `will` of the establishment, masquerading in a national security state as the writ of the government, cannot be justified. In Balochistan`s case, the will of the establishment has been against the will of the people which is for a social security or welfare state.

There will be no improvement in Balochistan`s situation until the mindset of the decision-makers changes. It is this that has alienated the Baloch youth. Veteran nationalist leader Sardar Ataullah Mengal believes that the Baloch have reached the point of no return; that they consider the slow unfolding of large-scale killings justification enough for going their separate way. The question, then, is: what led to this point of no return? Gen Musharraf once presented the rationale behind military action in Balochistan: to get into a `position of strength` so that the weak enemy was forced to agree to terms for the resolution of the conflict. Whilst at war, this could be a prudent military strategy against an enemy. But is it justified against disgruntled and frustrated citizens of Pakistan? There is irony to be found in the death of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who was targeted and killed in 2006.

Immediately after, the official media announced the killing probably thinking that the impact would be an insurgency sapped of its strength. In actual fact, the province slid into renewed violence as the news of Bugti`s death circulated. The killing revived and ignited Baloch nationalism, giving it a martyr while providing new young recruits to separatist and militant organisations. Now, the separatists are fighting for an independent Balochistan against Pakistan`s armed forces and law-enforcement personnel.

The light at the end of the tunnel lies in delineating and marginalising separatists from the nationalists, who have been fighting for political and economic rights as enshrined in the 1973 constitution. The killing of nationalists is diminishing any prospects of peace and pushing more young Baloch into the separatist camp.

The `national security paradigm` has got Balochistan hamstrung, with even efforts towards development confined within it. A state version of the development of the province`s natural resources was put in place in which local needs and demands were imposed. Mega projects worth billions of rupees were launched under the Musharraf administration, but they were accompanied by proposals to establish military cantonments at Khuzdar, Gwadar, Dera Bugti and Kohlu.

While they were probably meant to protect the projects under way in `enemy zones`, the impression created was that development was to be achieved at gunpoint.

Then in 2009, the federal government presented the Aghazi-Hugooq-i-Balochistan package. But Baloch leaders rejected it on the grounds that the government had not even mentioned a date for the cessation of military operations or the recovery of `missing` persons. True, the package addressed some of the genuine grievances of the province; but how good was that when the Baloch continued to pick up the mutilated and bullet riddled bodies of their compatriots? One recalls US president George W. Bush`s comments when his country launched aerial attacks against Afghanistan: he boasted of American generosity and said that American planes, while bombing Afghanistan, also dropped food for the poor and hungry.

Military offensives and political initiatives cannot go together. Economic packages to compensate for the destruction caused by military action will not be acceptable to the Baloch.

The authorities must immediately halt the military operation in the province, and make efforts to bring Baloch nationalists to the negotiating table. Credible assurances must be given regarding a fair investigation into the killing of political activists and the recovery of `missing` persons. A political process engaging all nationalist forces and tribal elders is the only silver lining.

The writer is the author of Economic Development of Balochistan. He can be reached via email at  sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com

 —

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ‘Wonders of Pakistan’. The contents of this article too are the sole responsibility of the author(s). WoP will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this post.

YOUR COMMENT IS IMPORTANT

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR COMMENT

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We at Wonders of Pakistan use copyrighted material the use of which may not have always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” only. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

Ordinary soil comprises of three main components: the clay, sand and the silt. The ideal soil (or loam) should have equal amounts of all these three components making the soil a fertile medium that is free draining and easy to dig. In practice, however, we come across soils that have either a greater proportion of sand, silt or clay. Each of these has its own advantages as well as disadvantages. Different varieties of plants are suited to different type of soils. So to have a soil that may suit the particular type of veggies you want to grow, you’ll have to add or remove the deficient or the surplus component to the soil you have in your kitchen garden.

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GARDENING

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER

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by Nayyar Hashmey

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It was last year in the month of July that I changed my domicile from Lahore to Rawalpindi.

In Bahria Town, Phase VIII where I took up my residence, there was a heap of rubbish in the backyard [all sort of Katchra], lot of glass shreds, broken glass sheets, concrete pieces, [small and medium] , steel billet [sarya pieces] and above all a terrible stench of organic waste, weeds and thorny bushes.

Since this peace of land [abt. 715 sq ft] was adjacent to my bed room [incidentally I was the first resident to occupy this house. Phase VIII of Bahria Town anyway is a new locality, so everything is brand new, but naturally has some problems as well].

I had no other solution but first to get rid of this stench and to get off the rubbish, that had accumulated since long [thanks to construction workers and the mistris who had turned this open space into a free for all junkyard].

Fortunately we have here quite a reasonable maintenance service. So I rang them up and the maintenance guys comprising of Malis and general manual labour with their trowels and shovels, spades and wheelbarrows arrived on the scene. It took them two days and I got rid of that stench with all the katchra removed from the site. For a few days the backyard remained as such without any utilization, when suddenly the idea flashed, why not a kitchen garden here! and thus I embarked upon this wonderful, hitherto undiscovered journey: growing veggies of my choice in my backyard kitchen garden.

But as I said, am a dummy as far as the things called kitchen garden are concerned, so to start with, I bought some veg’s seeds from Islamabad’s Sunday Bazaar.  These included the Japanese red radish. I don’t know whether it is really a veg of Japanese origin but here in Pakistan we always call it Japani Muli. So with the seeds of Japani Muli and some of white radish I came back home and planted these seeds straightaway in a corner of my backyard.

After six days I saw that the seeds had sprouted. Now I thought in one month’s time, that is, sometime in the month of September or October, I’ll pick up the radish roots and use these in my salad [fresh leafy icebergs with radish, some spring onions and leeks is something that I relish most]. Come September but I see only foliage and not radish [no root] but a thin root like strand. I thought may be I expected the fruit too early. So I waited for another three weeks to let the roots grow to get a size that could make the root thick enough to harvest and use it in my salad.

Came October, but still there are only thin, tail type roots which I thought were useless as  I could not use it in my favourite salad recipes. Having gone bit frustrated with my veggies’ growing exercise, I tried to find what type of soil I had; and here was my first lesson: that the soil is the very first thing that dummies [like me] encounter and as I said it is the very first thing that can make or break your harvest bonanza.

LESSON 1: KNOW YOUR SOIL

Ordinary soil comprises of three main components: the clay, sand and the silt. The ideal soil (or loam) should have equal amounts of all these three components making the soil a fertile medium that is free draining and easy to dig. In practice, however, we come across soils that have either a greater proportion of sand, silt or clay. Each of these has its own advantages as well as disadvantages. Different varieties of plants are suited to different type of soils. So to have a soil that may suit the particular type of veggies you want to grow, you’ll have to add or remove the deficient or the surplus component to the soil you have in your kitchen garden.

Let’s first take the soil that has got a lot of sand in it.

THE SANDY SOIL

 Sandy soil is mostly sand and far less clay. Such soil has good aeration which helps the plant roots to get air but problem with such soils is that they do not have the power of retention or the ability to entrap water in the soil to pass it on to the roots which require it for a healthy plant growth. So what happens is, that roots having no moisture, get dried up and ultimately the roots and consequently the plant dies out.

Sandy soils tend to dry out in the summer, but warm up quickly in spring (allowing seedlings a good start) and they are much easier to dig than clay-based soils. If your soil is sandy, you should have no trouble growing root vegetables (such as radish, carrots and parsnips), but you may struggle with nutrient-hungry cabbages and broccoli).

CLAYEY SOIL

 Clay soils are ‘heavier soils’ and have small particles. This means water is less likely to drain away but the soil is more likely to become waterlogged. Heavier soils are fertile, but take longer to warm up in the spring and are harder to dig. If you have clay soil, you should find that brassicas will grow well, but root vegetables like radish, carrots and parsnips, mints etc are likely to struggle as they have to push through the heavy, often compacted soil.

Now the soil that I encountered here in Bahria Town Phase VIII was this clay type. But it proved to be the worst type of soil. Why? Because Pindi /ISD being part of the Pothohar plateau, have a tremendous amount of rocks in the soil. What happens is that in presence of moisture the heavy clay soil acts like cement and forms large blocks of stone hard soil clumps. Not only do these stony clumps obstruct the flow of oxygen to the roots but also obstruct the roots to expand. In this process the supply of essential nutrients to the younger roots is blocked, resulting in a highly stunted growth of the plants.

LESSON 2: CHECK YOUR SOIL

You can check the texture of your soil easily by checking it in wet and dry conditions. If the soil is hard when dry and sticky when wet, it is likely to be clay. If it is light, easily drained and easy to dig, it is probably sand or loamy sand. For a more precise test, take a small amount of soil in your hand and wet it. Knead it into a smooth paste and then roll it about between your hands to form a ball. The following results will reveal the soil texture:

• Sticky and gritty – loam, the perfect soil
• Easily rolls into a ball, but feels rough – clay loam
• Easily rolls into a ball, shiny when rubbed, but still gritty – sandy clay
• Easily rolls into a ball and becomes shiny but not gritty – clay
• Doesn’t roll into a ball well, and feels gritty – sand
• Easily rolls into a ball but it falls apart easily – loamy sand
• Feels slippery and silky – silty loam

SOIL pH

Soil pH is a measure of the soil’s acidity or alkalinity.

Knowing the pH of your soil helps you determine which vegetables to plant. If your vegetable plot has alkaline soil, you should grow them in pots with acidic compost. If, on the other hand, your soil is acidic, brassicas (such as cabbages) benefit if lime is added a few weeks before sowing since they enjoy an alkaline soil and lime adds alkalinity. Adding lime also helps prevent clubroot disease, a major problem with the brassica family.

Alkaline soil has a pH of around 8.5 whilst the pH of neutral soil is 7. Most plants grow best in soil with a pH of between 6.5 and 6.8. You can identify the soil’s pH using a testing kit. These vary from a cheap soil pH meter, which is simply pushed into the ground and examined, to kits that include color charts and tubes. The latter provide more reliable results. For best results, take a small amount of soil from the surface of various areas of your garden or vegetable plot. Avoid taking soil from waterlogged areas or frozen ground. Place each sample in a polythene bag and label it, stating where in the garden it came from. Allow each sample to dry out and then follow the instructions on your testing kit carefully.

Otherwise you can take your soil samples to the nearest testing lab run by the provincial agricultural departments in all the five provinces of Pakistan.

Once you have the results of these tests you can plan which areas to prioritize for soil improvement and where best to grow the more fussy vegetable types.

Your soil having been conditioned according to your veggies’ growth requirements, next what you need to do is to turn the soil into a friable state; and that needs good amount of hoeing or what we locally call the godi. Godi not only breaks heavy soil clods but also removes weeds and other undesirable vegetative growth.

You might ask why the weed removal?? Well weeds are also plants and they too need the nutritious elements [like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium] which are essential for a healthy growth of our vegetables. When these weeds consume the nutritional elements from the same soil your veggies are growing, there will be less supply of nutrition to our veggies and hence these will be weak, their fruiting stunted or there might be no fruiting at all.

Another advantage of doing godi is that the plant roots get enough oxygen for a healthy growth of plants, which is why the agricultural department always stresses on “Jitni godi, utni dod”, which means more you do hoe, more harvest you get.

While coming to end of the first part of my encounter with vegetables cultivation in my kitchen garden, here is now the finishing touch to our soil preparation.

 Keep your soil conditioned with proper type of compost or dung manure, and keep it in such condition for at least a week, longer the better.

You can now sow your seeds and get the vegetables springing up in a few days to few weeks [depending upon the seed quality, the vegetable type and last but not least the weather.

My next essay will be on seeds, seed beds and how to take care of the seeds during their sprouting process.

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Images: Top to bottom (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

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