There are probably no more readers left, but CM is exiting its long hiatus. Just to catch up, here are a few things I, um, failed to note properly.
1. On the Jaswant/Jinnah "Controversy", one can begin with this op-ed by Sugata Bose, Why Jinnah Matters and then continue to Naim Sahib's front-page corrective, Jaswant Not-So Original. Also, see his full article. I am certainly going to be using this "controversy" as a teaching moment. If only for myself.
2. Ramchandra Guha (whom I have discussed before) wrote another provocative piece, The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual [pdf], EPW, Aug 15, 2009, and it got a thoughtful response from Sudhanva Deshpande, Bilingualism, Theatre, and the Fate of the Vernacular [pdf], EPW, Sep 5, 2009. Of course, while my fellow desi intellectuals are debating the multilingual politician, I am unsure if we have even monolingual ones in Pakistan.
3. Speaking of Pakistan, the Kerry-Lugar bill is back on the Senate floor. Along with Anil Kalhan, I wrote and shopped around an op-ed on the issue but it got us no-where. I guess we can always self-publish it here.
4. I am sure the Kerry-Lugar bill will not get any attention (has the Afghanistan election got any attention?) until Obama's efforts to mind-control our children into becoming socialist zombies who feed on senior brains is finally compeleted. I am in Berlin and haven't watched tv or read newspapers in a full week, so I don't know anything about any of that.
5. And yes, Berlin posts will start soon enough. Those following the twitter feed are probably sick of this already.
O-YAY! and a late congrats on the berlinisation of CM.
There are indeed readers left! Welcome back and I'm looking forward to reading the op-ed about the Kerry-Lugar bill if you do publish it on CM.
My thoughts (mostly tangential) on the Jaswant/Jinnah issue: http://qalandari.blogspot.com/2009/08/jaswant-on-jinnah.html http://qalandari.blogspot.com/2009/08/jaswant-on-jinnah-ii.html http://qalandari.blogspot.com/2009/08/jaswant-on-jinnah-iii.html Naim's understated demolition is, shall we say, priceless. More broadly, however, I have seen nothing in all the discussion about the book that acknowledges the obvious debt to the likes of Ayesha Jalal's "The Sole Spokesman." I will grit my teeth and read Jaswant's book, but I do hope he has acknowledged the intellectual debt. Naim's piece does not give me much confidence...
Welcome back amigo...
Hi from Dallas.
can US hang all the ruling class blood sucking monsters in pakistan. like they did with saddam hussien and his ruling elite... hang PPP for exploiting the name of Bhutto to do exactly opposite of Bhutto's vission. and building Surrey palace in UK(larger than Queen of England's palace) offshore bank accounts hang PML for exploiting Pakistan like Abba jee ka chai ka hotel making palaces in saudi arabia and uk and europe like pakitan already is not suffering from RELATIVES corruption, SIFARISH, only those related to these monsters prospers, hey wat about 200 million Pakistanis, should they try to be relaed wid PML to get a decent living... hang MQM for its party animal who shouts like a monkey living a luxurious life in UK for the last 20 years and pretending 2 be leader of karachi hang Mullahs whose own children are liviving in europe and usa , for using Allahs name and their religion to decieve and exploite muslims all these so called servant of people, Leaders have Palaces abroad, huge oversease accounts, huge oversease properties... hang imran khan....for marrying 3 richest jewish jemima(jewish agent) hang lawyers for making millions and still our poor suffers in jail for false cases, hang judges for hanging most brilliant politician of modern world Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a false case to please USA hang musharaf for not hanging these politicians and being over confident that these politicians will never come back in pakistani politics.....and not hanging these politicians when the whole of pakistan was crying for corruption, may be he under estimated corruption in pakistani society and his own millitary generals......e.g. tales of corruption of general jahangir karamat to be continued........list is long....... THese monsters killed Quade-Azam .....he worked so hard to his death....cuz these rulling elite wont work and was busy in marry making , and grabbing property the ambulance send for Quade Azam broke down on the way and later went outa petrol while bringing Quade Azam back..... these rulling class elite hanged Bhutto for restoring pakistan millitarys moral after defeat... for making pakistan a nuclear power for making pakistan leader of the Islamic world(the only successful islamic gethering of the muslim leaders ever) for not bowing down to India for reastoring pride of pakistanis in UN and international world... for giving pakistan only successful constitution...... After all, the crimes of the Baloch sardars in burying women alive, or the Tumandars of southern Punjab cutting off the noses of women or the Sindhi feudals setting dogs on women to kill them carefully wact for those who divert your anger towards one provence or other, they are foreign agents trying to make brother fight with brother...