علاجِ گردشِ لیل و نہار

Why does Delhi smell like an inversion layer while it’s raining in the monsoon? I can’t figure it. But right now, I’m sitting in the guest room of a lovely house, it’s been raining all night and the smell coming in from the window isn’t that nice rain-on-dirt smell, but the smell of smog and deisel and yech.

I like Lahore better, though it smells like cow poo in the rain. What I really love is Islamabad. Rain on dirt. Yum.

I’m getting into this fabulous blog WOC PhD. That’s Woman Of Colour for you non-Amreekan types. For one thing, she featured Stacy Ann Chin in a post on Asian/APIA/Women’s History Month. I’m in love with Stacy Ann Chin. She’s one of most vibrant poets I’ve ever heard or seen. But for another thing, and that’s the real value here, these are some of the best researched and articulate articles (oh, i’m such a good writer - ‘articulate articles’ - but it’s late, okay?_ in blogland and quite possibly on the internet.

Check it out, particularly if you’re interested in race and immigration in the US.

I just installed Firefox 3 and it’s all slick and lovely and smooth. I’m a fan of the shashka and the smooth look and whatnot, but when I loaded BBCUrdu.com, it gave me a) an icky Naskh and b) disconnected letters. I don’t know what to do about it. I want it back to the ordinary Geeza Pro goodness a la:

Now this is still not joined letters with the medial hay because, again, Firefox has buggered it. But it’s still more readable than this:

Now this is reidiculous. it would be okay to read, though I prefer the former, if it would join where it’s supposed to.

I installed about a jillion Urdu fonts on my computer (Mac OS 10.5) and when I had Firefox 2.whatever, it eventually starting behaving. Which is to say, first it messed up the medial hay, both the dochashmi and the kunda, then it fixed dochashmi, then it fixed kunda, and then it registered the dash that forms the Urdu fullstop (which it was rendering as a question mark for a while.)

Now: do I have to reinstall my fonts? Are there new fonts? Do I have to wait till Firefox 3 catches up to Urdu? It’s very annoying.

The US Department of Justice is apparently considering changing its rules to profile Muslim- and Arab-Americans. I think this is ingenious. I think that what they should do is enlist the likes of true Islamophobes like Daniel Pipes, put on some spiffy army hats, grow moustaches of varying styles and stomp around town. I think that would be great. Because fascism only looks good if you dress for it.

Fuckers. This after Obama, who I’m still gonna vote for, voted yes on FISA, the bill forgiving the phone companies that complied with illegal governmental wire-tapping and snooping on the private lives of Americans.

It’s not a great day for freedom and democracy and chocolate chip cookies.

Some dumb fuck has decided to create a profile on orkut under my name. It has some details in it that are real because they were stolen from my old orkut profile. But mostly it’s a bunch of bullshit. I don’t know who created it and for what reason, but I don’t really give a fuck. This is just so everyone knows: I’m not on orkut. So don’t call me or write to me expecting something exciting and dirty.

As a friend of mine pointed out, there’s an element of funny. Apparently, my communities are “Body building” and “body building in pakistan.” Genius, that is.

Anyway. Yeah.

I was reading this post on Oppression Olympics by Octogalore just now and something about this comment by Daisy struck me particularly:

And my question, quite seriously: Who do they think those people WERE in the 60s and 70s, having sex in disco bathrooms, engaging in group marriages and Bob-and-Carol-and-Ted-and-Alice type encounters? All of those people are my age and older now. It’s like they have some idea that all old people just retire and instantly become Baptists, or something. I dunno.

Another old woman and I had a long discussion the other day, about how conservative the young seem to be–and does liberalism mark us as “old”? Odd that ’stylistic’ liberalism (willingness to try new fashions, music, clubs, vacation spots, foods) is popular with the American young, but NOT idealistic or intellectual liberalism.

My mom belongs to that generation, the hippie dippie liberal all-we-need-is-love generation. She was mostly chilling out during that time, more a thinker than a marcher, and her hippie dippie-ness resided in her associations and conversations rather than anything else. Continue reading →

…or summat, I thought I ought to point out that GlobalComment is in fact one of the most interesting sites in which to find poetry, not just because they publish mine upon occasion, but because poetry resides there in the midst of politics and commentary, which is where it ought to be. So go have a look at GlobalComment’s poetry line-up. And if you find what you like, I shall point you in the direction particularly of their sister site ArabComment’s stuff on and from muslim women because it is consistently intelligent, more interesting than MWU!’s progressive fundamentalism (okay, that might be an exaggeration) but still countering western notions successfully.

I have just been named Contributing Editor on GlobalComment and I am absolutely chuffed! Thanks to Natalia and the rest of the GC folks!

ہمیں بھی جلوہ گاہِ ناز پر لے کر چلو موسی
تمہیں غش آ گیا تو حُسنِ جاناں کون دیکھے گا

Robbers burned alive in Karachi.

I just don’t understand. Bolta Pakistan and Capital Talk both addressed this, but they seem not to be fully aware of the horror. Check them out on Pakistan Politics. It’s absolutely horrific.

I’d better go study. I can’t stand knowing what’s going on in the present anymore. It’s ancient Arabia for me.

A while ago, Asif Ali Zardari was interviewed by the BBC about what would eventually happen regarding the restoration of the judiciary. Zardari equivocated in his sleazy fashion, saying that, because he wants the “majesty of law” restored, “we” will come up with a plan that does not allow for the abuse of power that Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s SC was able to get away with. When asked what he meant, Zardari lost his shit, essentially, and said

I have come to power… People’s Party has come to power. We have lost our leader to politics, the fourth leader we’re losing to politics, we intend to \change the system… so that no other Asif Zardari stays in prison under trial for 8 years and Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry does not say, I have not read the case so I can hear the case … in that case i was languishing in prison for two years and i went to Chaudhry Iftikhar five times. The judiciary has killed my father in law, they admit judicious murder

Sound familiar? Yeah. To me too.

یعنی انہوں نے صاف کہہ دیا ے کہ کسی صورت افتخار چودھری کو اپنے عہدہ پر بحال نہیں کیا جائے گاـ یا چیف جائے گا یا اسکا اقتدارـ تو اگر تیرہ سے اٹھائیس اور اٹھائیس سے سو بندہ بھی بینچ پر لانا پڑا یا آئین میں ترمیمیں کر کر کہ اس کا بھوسہ بنانا پڑا تو سب جائز ہےـ بس زرداری صاحب کو انکا انتقام حاصل ہوـ

A friend of mine just got fired from her job because she didn’t dress feminine enough. This was in Lahore. Because that’s what’s important in a teaching job - girlie-ness.

Some days the world is just disgusting. Which leads me to my next post…

via Gul Bukhari at Pakistan Politics:

Absar Alam, Bureau Chief of Geo News was summoned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and asked to apologize for a news ticker broadcasting a meeting between Justice Nawaz Abbasi, a judge of the Supreme Court, and the Secretary Interior.

What ensued was surely, not just a First Ever, but hopefully also the Last Ever event of it’s kind to happen in Pakistan. The first shocking revelation was that Justice Nawaz Abbasi was on the three judge bench of the Supreme Court endeavoring to hear/try the proceedings of this Suo Moto Notice (involving his own complaint). Mr. Alam had to address Justice Abbasi directly to remind the honorable gentleman that he was not qualified to hear the case since he was a party in the case.

Embarrassingly, it doesn’t end here: Mr. Alam refused to apologize to the judge and asked for time to hire a lawyer to represent him. The journalist further proceeded to tell the supreme court judge that he, and the media in general, were doing the most important duty as citizens by protecting, safeguarding and upholding the constitution, by ensuring no one desecrates article 19 of the constitution (which essentially safeguards freedom of speech)!

In a fit of fury, Justice Abbasi wrote out an order banning any programs, mention, clips or coverage of the judiciary by the print and electronic media in toto. At which stage even the counsel from the state advised him to review and rescind his order, as it was very likely to be violated. The Justice in question had, using a ticker announcement, in effect issued a broad based gagging order on all forms of information and news coverage with regard to the judiciary issue. On the 12th of May.

It’s absolutely hilarious. It’s also scary. I don’t want to lionize the Nov. 2 judiciary overly, but their suo moto notices were a little more relevant to actual justice, rather than entirely in the service of the ego of the judges. The only place I disagree with the author, Gul Bukhari, is the assessment that it’s sad that the judges backed down in the face of a protest from Absar Alam. I think it’s great. I think cooler heads eventually prevailed and realized that this was going to become absolutely farcical. I don’t have any particular insight on whether or not there should be a contempt of court law in Pakistan - being not the least bit qualified to have an opinion - but the fact that we don’t worked entirely in the favour of what’s right in this case.

Meanwhile, May 12 came and went, and the judiciary was not restored. Hopelessness may be kufr, but what happens if it is so frequently affirmed?