What the world can do to help Palestine?

I believe the world should attempt to surge the capacity and competence of Palestinians in collaboration with Palestinians. Foreign aid should be conditional on difficult Palestinian reforms to establish a globalized neo-liberal economic system based on meritocratic hierarchies of competence and capability. As this happens, the Palestinians will have the leverage and influence to negotiate a deal with Israel on their own terms and many of Palestine’s other problems will take care of themselves. This FT article covers some of challenges in surging Palestinian capacity.

When Faris Zaher, a Palestinian Jerusalemite, graduated in Hong Kong with a masters degree and returned home at the peak of the financial crisis, he drifted for a bit, working in consulting and property, and starting a website for classified ads.

Then he hit on his big idea: a start-up travel portal catering to the $50bn market for hotel bookings in the Middle East. There was no regional competitor back then and with the web opening up the prospect of borderless business, the West Bank city of Ramallah was as good a place as any to set up.

Less than five years later, Yamsafer is one of the region’s largest hotel booking sites, according to its founder. It recently closed a $3.5m funding round in one of the biggest venture capital deals the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories have seen.

Yamsafer employs 70 people in Ramallah, a place where too many young university graduates are chasing too few jobs. “The people we hire are more hungry than people you would have hired in Dubai, Jordan or elsewhere,” Zahar, who is 29, told me recently.

Continue reading What the world can do to help Palestine?

Congratulations Sajid Javid!

Congratulations Sajid Javid, the first minority senior cabinet member that I know of in the history of England and the UK! The new Home Secretary is a patriotic Englishman of Desi (historic Indian) Pakistani Ancestry. He might become one of the most successful home secretary in English history and all of us are very proud of him and proud of our Anglo brothers and sisters!

Naturally Sajid Javid has been subject to vicious sectarian anti muslim attacks from nonmuslim Englishmen, especially post modernist Englishmen. In the above video UK muslims strongly defend Sajid from the sectarian anti muslim slurs. Sadly this is a part of a long pattern of mistreatment against muslim heritage people on the part of nonmuslims:

 

Jinnah the actor & Quaid the Performer

Tomorrow is the Royal Wedding and the rumour is that Priyanka Chopra may be a bridesmaid, which would be huge.

At any rate on our Pakistani Literati group this was circulated around and I found the initial bit about Quaid e Azam (personally using Jinnah is like using Holy Prophet without the PBUH; there is a sliver of me that is a parochial Paki) about wanting to be an actor is fascinating.

I find the trope of QeA not wanting Partition to be a tiring; then why didn’t the Master Negotiator back down from his demands if he found them so unreasonable. If QeA and his ilk hadn’t messed it up; the HM the Queen’s Bahu would have probably been a desi and Harry would have been short for Harinder!

How Pakistan ended up trapping Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Jinnah’s close friend Kanji Dwarkadas agreed that Jinnah was not in earnest in his demand for Pakistan. After a 90-minute talk with Jinnah on August 28, 1942, Kanji wrote: “Jinnah was not thinking in terms of Pakistan. Nor did he think of becoming the head of a new state of Pakistan. In fact, Jinnah never imagined that Pakistan would ever come into being.”

When Kanji asked Jinnah about Pakistan, the latter replied: “My dear Kanji, one gesture, one friendly gesture was all that I was asking for and it was not forthcoming from the Congress. If the Congress would make this gesture, the whole problem would not be difficult to solve.”

Feeling trapped into accepting a Pakistan he had no intention of creating, Jinnah was yet too proud to call it off. Instead, he put up a brave front, as he told a Hindu friend in Karachi, Hashoo Kewal Ramani, an industrialist: “Look here, I never wanted this damn Partition! It was forced upon me by Sardar Patel. And now they want me to eat humble pie and raise my hands in defeat.”

The Quaid-i-Azam was the role of a lifetime that Jinnah found hard to turn down. But once he took on and played the part so convincingly, the “mad mullahs and extremists”, as Jinnah disdainfully called them, made sure he would never slip out of it again, keeping him a “virtual prisoner in his palace” and censoring all lines that went contrary to the script they had in mind.

Harlem (NY) as I knew in mid 1990’s

This is Harlem in NY as I knew it in the mid 1990’s.

Now its so, gentrified.   My friends from upper Harlem (145th Street) are my family in the US.  I am no citizen or Green card holder of the US.  Hopefully, I will get my Social Security that I paid into with 3 H1B  Visa Employment.  I am not holding my breath for another  3 years.

With my wife Chandra Wimalasiri (RIP, 2018; we separated in 2004) in Stony Brook, NY, 1991.  USD 600 for the 1975 Ford LTD  station wagon with 150K miles.  Went to Louisiana, and another time to Florida.

Then got  Chevy Celebrity for free (Prof Akira Akubo thank you) with  160K and crossed the US three times.  Life and reminisces are great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQewMLnXX7I

Intellectual Dark Web (a)

This is the second article in the series of the Intellectual Dark Web, and adds the respected, honorable, wise Russell Brand to the echelons of the Intellectual Dark Web. Please soak in the wisdom of this shared teaching and conversation of Acharya Russell Brand and Acharya Jordan Peterson:

This is their second conversation. Their previous conversation three months ago was equally profound:

Which in turn built upon Russell Brand’s conversation with Sam Harris:

Farhan Quereshi (himself a leader of the Intellectual Dark Web) called this the conversation between the Buddhist Sam Harris and the Hindu Russell Brand. I would suggest that anyone interested in the deeper essences, shared wisdom and subtle nuanced symphony between Sanathana Dharma and stream of Sanathana Dharma called Buddhism watch this conversion. But this article will focus on Jordan Peterson and Russell Brand.

Continue reading Intellectual Dark Web (a)

10 Questions on South Asia

(1.) Raazi question: if India had not gotten involved in 1971, would there still be an East Pakistan?

(2.) the Karnataka question: What would a (Indian) Hindu Republic actually look like? Will Rahul G ever be PM?

(3.) the Muslim question: who will inherit the throne from SRK?

(4.) the Ramazan question: is the Indo-Persian culture dying among British Pakistanis (Sadiq Khan wishes everyone a Happy Ramadan)

(5.) the Western question: when/if will K-Jo come out?

(6.) the Academic question: will global philanthropy ever focus IIT/IIM funding?

(7.) the Vidhi question; will there ever be a Pakistani CEO of a Silicon Valley company (Pakistani not Muslim)?

(7b.) Vidhi bonus question; will Pakistanis be allowed to play in IPL? Will Pakistan win the Cricket World Cup again? Will Fawad Khan be allowed to come back to india? Would Pakistan ever get out of POK (she initially slipped Azad Kashmir but then made me change it to POK 🙁

(8.) Fun Z question: will Ranbir choose Alia or Mahira?

(9.) the Deadpool question; why do South Asians allow themselves to be demeaned in Hollywood as cab drivers and nerds. Will there ever be an Indian superhero (a Muslim one is coming; Kamala Khan)?

(10.) final question: who will be the next person to publicly resign from BP?

BJPization of Dalits

My title is of course provocative but I was reading the results in Karnataka that the Dalit vote bank is now firmly backing the BJP.

If the BJP is able to unite the Hindu bloc (and Modi seems the right leader for it) well then it’s really going to become an unstoppable juggernaut (which I believe is a Sanskrit word).

Bollywood of course remains a bastion of liberalism but I am increasingly sympathetic to the Hindutva view as to why India must bear the costs of secularism.

Firstly the idea of celebrating all holidays is simply ridiculous; why does an 80% Hindu country need days off for Eid or Christmas.

Only the BJP have the willpower to smash the caste system to smithereens, which frankly has been the reason why India has been so divided and vulnerable to invasions the past millennia.

There is no doubt that the biggest influencers on the BJP has been the terrifying cohesiveness of the Muslim community (people rant on about caste in South Asian Muslims but nothing can compare to power of creed) and Pakistan.

If the upshot of Hindutva is to abolish the hierarchy of castes then I guess that can only be a good thing I guess? I’m just speculating out here in an idle academic matter since I’m more upset about the depiction of Desis in Deadpool than Elections in the Old a World.

Pressure on Social Media in Pakistan

A recent BBC report discussed how contractors employed by ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations, the media arm of the Pakistani armed forces) monitor and harass people who are perceived as being disloyal or anti-military. Today I saw an email from a friend who is a very patriotic Pakistani with mainstream (pro-democracy) views, who was just kicked out of an “elite” Whatsapp group because the group admin was under pressure from “sources”. I am excerpting the relevant part of the email here with his identity removed; to me the interesting part is that this is a relatively small group of people, and they are not Left wing activists or ethnic nationalists or starry eyed peaceniks, they are mostly bankers and Westernized members of the elite, deeply committed to Pakistan and the idea of Pakistan.. that someone was looking at them and making specific requests to remove members is a new and rather extreme step in the spread of XiJinping thought in Pakistan..

“Yesterday, this member-moderator along with two others became its victims when we were unceremoniously removed from a so-called “prestigious” WhatsApp group of “who’s who” by its moderator without notice or assigning any reason. Our sin? Arguing against the Miltablishment’s policies in the context of Nawaz Sharif’s interview. One member out of 250 in this WhatsApp group took a principled stand by voluntarily opting out in our support. Some other members I understand are writing in our defense. Surprisingly, those Miltablishment supporters who had initiated the debate on this issue (Nawaz Sharif’s interview) and had used the filthiest and most polarizing of languages against the group’s stated policy were neither touched nor even reprimanded.

The moderator of this WhatsApp group subsequently and reportedly explained to someone that “continuous bashing of military (sic)….was landing the group in trouble” and that “he was under pressure from some quarters” to take action (remove the members) – this could be a reference to outside monitors (intelligence agencies) or inside die-hard supporters of Miltablishment. Either way, the thought-police is out in full force. If a WhatsApp group of 250 is monitored, the power of the Miltablishment is complete and total.

Having come back to the country after X-years, I have been incredibly saddened and depressed at the strident polarization one is a witness to. No one is listening to the other side and temperatures are as high as I clearly remember they were at the time of military action in Bangladesh in 1971, when a brother was pitted against a brother..”

An extract from the BBC report (which is worth reading in its entirety):

By establishing the email address associated with the metadata of the document, Amnesty researchers traced it to an Islamabad-based cyber security expert, Zahid Abbasi.

When confronted by the BBC, Mr Abbasi confirmed he had previously worked for a year for the Pakistani military’s public relations team (ISPR) and that the document was genuine.

He admitted his role included tracing the IP addresses of “people abusing institutions” online and “compromising their accounts” by, for example, sending them fake Facebook login pages.

Intellectual Dark Web

I would define the “intellectual dark web” as the confluence and convergence of leaders from classical European enlightenment, hard sciences, technology (including neuroscience, bio-engineering, genetics, artificial intelligence), and east philosophy streams. Among the intellectual dark web’s many members are Dr. Richard Haier, Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Haidt, Ben Shapiro, Weinstein brothers, Sam Harris, Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Yuval Noah Harari, Thomas Friedman, Maajid Nawaz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku , Dr. VS Ramachandran, Steven Pinker, Armin Navabi, Ali Rizvi, Farhan Qureshi, Peter Beinart, Gad Saad, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Dave Rubin, Joe Rogan, Russell Brand.  If Steve Jobs were still alive, I would include him among them. They defy easy labels and are high on openness. I hesitate to label others without their permission, but our very own Razib Khan strikes me as a potential leader of the “intellectual dark web”; although I will withdraw this nomination if he wishes. 😉

Some see the intellectual dark web as the primary global resistance to post modernism. I don’t agree. Rather I see them as ideation and intuition leaders thinking different:

Continue reading Intellectual Dark Web

Brown Pundits