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I had goosebumps reading the news yesterday that several criminals took stage in Lahore under the banner of JuD and aligned themselves with Pakistan army. Was it a conspiracy to malign Pakistan army, I wondered. Who could have been behind this? You see, I have no sympathies for characters like Hafiz Saeed who have eroded the Pakistani society and have pushed Pakistan in a state of profound crisis. These fundamentalists have pushed Pakistan in a crisis that is complex, and multi-dimensional with facets that touch every aspect of our lives: our health and livelihood, the quality of our environment and our social relationships, our ideology, economy, and politics. It is a crisis of intellectual, moral, and spiritual dimensions; a crisis of a scale and urgency unprecedented in 65 years history of Pakistan.

I called a progressive friend, a leading journalist to share my concern and at least rhetorically, he had gone back several years – suggesting we need a rag-tag army of imbeciles like Hafiz Saeed to counter threats from India. My friend had a fit when I suggested that India is not a threat. Winning the hearts and minds of the likes of my “progressive” friend is a major milestone for the retrogressive forces whose success means decline of Pakistan’s cultural steam and human decency.

Undoubtedly, India has the potential to become a regional hegemon and Pakistan must protect it’s sovereignty, independence and dignity.

But these wayward mullahs who have managed to drown the voices of reason and rationality are rapidly destroying our country. With Petro dollars supported tribal and Wahabi influence Pakistan’s social structures and behavior patterns have become so rigid that this country can no longer adapt to changing situations, it is unable to carry on the creative process of cultural evolution.

But I am lucky to have many other friends who are willing to give peace a fighting chance. While the Mullahs in Lahore were waging jihad (at least through their hateful speeches) many progressive Pakistani and Indians were praying for peace. A prominent Pakistani activist Beena Sarwar wrote on her wall:

There were a dozen people over at our place for nihari this afternoon, watching football (!!). We turned off the TV at half-time and sat in silence together to Pray for Peace Between India & Pakistan.

Here is my response to the Facebook posting mentioned above:

Beena Sarwar my friends know that I am not a “praying type” so I didn’t pause between Jets and Eagles game today to pray Had I taken a moment of silence I would have said the same lines that many of my tribe have been saying for centuries: “Dear God, I have come to the conclusion you probably don’t exist, but I’ve also come to the conclusion that any one view I hold may turn out to be mistaken, however unlikely the odds seem. So if you are there, if I am wrong will you please slap some sense into my people in India and Pakistan. Would you please explain to them that what divides them is so tiny compared to what unites them. Please give my friends on both side of the borders, courage to find the similarities instead of accentuating differences. Please give them the strength to negate the narratives of division crafted by those with hegemonic intentions. Please give them the intellectual integrity so they can recognize the good in each other. Please God – if you really have all the power that everyone assigns to you, will you please let South Asia unite in my life time. I don’t ask for much God- let my people travel and trade freely. Learn and entertain openly. Work and innovate collaboratively. Please God, if you are there….

I am glad to have people like Beena – but unfortunately she is an exception and not a rule. I am concerned about Pakistan’s outlook because there is an eerie uniformity of opinion. Even those who are tolerant, progressive, democratic are willing to condone mullahs. Whereas growing civilizations display endless variety and versatility, those in the process of disintegration show uniformity and lack of inventiveness.

Unless Pakistan’s progressive and democratic forces are willing to take on the retrogressive elements we will concede our right to opinion, education and way of life that is unacceptable to the mullahs.

Fundamentalists will prohibit freedom of expression and use all coercive apparatus to crush opposition. Education will be discouraged and whatever little is allowed, will be subverted by distortion of curricula. You can argue what is new- it has always been the case? It is the intensity that will change. We are not talking about tribal areas. This monster is already in cosmopolitan cities like Karachi and Lahore.

I want to simply point out that religious conviction and religious doctrine have contradictory effects. Some people are motivated by their religious beliefs to challenge oppressive social systems and oppressive relations in the world. At the same time, organized religion and much of religious doctrine is used to reinforce the oppression of the masses of people, to preach submission before the established authorities and their oppressive rule. In Pakistan, rulers have used religion to oppress masses- and we must not empower these mullahs to oppress us any further. As Lenin said, every reactionary order is in need of two functions, the hangman and the priest, and they go hand in hand and complement each other.

So unless you are ready to lock-up your sisters and daughters and throw away reason and rationality, you must fight back. Without an iota of doubt these monsters will destroy Pakistan to the point where you will not be able to recognize this country. It is not enough that Jamaat-e-Islami does not win votes- their ideology has hijacked our entire parliament- our entire nation. Unless you clean up your offices, your neighborhoods, and your educational institutions from these tyrannical imbeciles, Pakistan will not survive.

Stay on high alert! Don’t let proponents of past take over your beautiful cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

16 December 1971 marked the end of a nine month long saga of chaos; genocide, arson and rape, when Pakistan army surrendered East Pakistan to the Indian army. This day is etched as the day of ultimate betrayal in the hearts and minds of many Pakistanis who were promised by their President and Commander in chief that the fight would continue indefinitely, just a few hours before their 96,000 soldiers surrendered in Dhaka.

“Kill three million of them,” said President Yahya Khan, “and the rest will eat out of our hands.” Robert Payne writes in his book titled ‘Massacre’, referring to a meeting of Pakistan army’s top brass held
on February 22, 1971.

“For month after month in all the regions of East Pakistan the massacres went on,” writes Robert Payne. “They were not the small casual killings of young officers who wanted to demonstrate their
efficiency, but organized massacres conducted by sophisticated staff officers, who knew exactly what they were doing. Muslim soldiers, sent out to kill Muslim peasants, went about their work mechanically and efficiently, until killing defenseless people became a habit like smoking cigarettes or drinking wine. … Not since Hitler invaded Russia had there been so vast a massacre.” Robert Payne goes on to assert through his analysis that military dictatorship is the most corrupt form of government.

R.J. Rummel, in his book ‘Death by government’ describes: These “willing executioners” were fuelled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. “Bengalis were often
compared with monkeys and chickens” said Pakistani General Niazi, ‘It was a low lying land of low lying people.’ The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best
be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the  soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Punjabi captain as telling him, ‘We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one.’ This is the arrogance of Power.

Susan Brownmiller, in her book “Against our will: Men, women and rape” puts the number of women raped from 200,000 to 400,000. She wrote, “Eighty percent of the raped women were Moslems, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. … Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land …”  Brownmiller quotes  a description of one such assault which targeted a recently-married woman, as reported by Aubrey Menen: “Two [Pakistani soldiers] went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others
stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom’s voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed. Then there was silence again, except for some muffled cries that soon subsided. In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all the six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit.”

The human death toll reported during this nine month long genocide varies from 300,000 to 3 million. Mukti Bahini, the armed volunteers waging guerilla war against Pakistan army with the help of India,
avenged by murdering Biharis, the urdu-speaking migrants. Tens of thousands of Bihari men, women and children were murdered, their property looted and women raped. Biharis saw another round of murder after December 16, as Bengalis celebrated their independence by killing the friends of Pakistan army.

With signing of the surrender document, 96,000 Pakistani soldiers and civilians were interned into Indian jails and camps. Indian government that gloated on the success of their war against traditional rivals and gleefully announced themselves as liberators of Bengalis, did not mind sending the perpetrators of genocide back to Pakistan, after a deal was struck on border disputes. Those who committed murder and rape of their fellow countrymen in East Pakistan returned home to
receive pension from the national ex-chequer and they were awarded lands. A commission was set to investigate the war but its findings were never made public in Pakistan.

Two and a half million Biharis languished in refugee camps and their demand to be repatriated to Pakistan was struck down by various Pakistani governments. Families in those refugee camps lived under inhuman conditions for almost four decades and saw another generation grow-up.  A few months ago the Supreme Court of Bangladesh decreed that Biharis be considered citizens of the country and allowed them to vote.

The army took over the rein of power again in Pakistan in 1977 and executed the elected Prime minister. They partnered with America in their war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the world forgot their crimes of 1971. There was military operation in Baluchistan. Sindhis were brutalized during Zia’s regime and Pakhtuns have been thrown in a war for 3 decades. The army/ISI, with its choke-hold on President Zardari’s government seems poised to push Sindhis into a clash again.

Pakistan army continues with its murderous ways and receives praise and aid for its efforts. With the International tribunal conducting trials and issuing warrants against culprits of crimes against humanity, one wonders whether Pakistan army did commit any crime or the victims of their crimes were not humans.

Look at the HP financials and you will find that WebOS has been a drag on profit.“In fiscal 2011, which ended in October, Hewlett-Packard posted $1.64 billion in expenses related to the decision to stop making WebOS devices,” reports Business Week. It almost sound like donating a broken car that’s sitting in your garage to a charity so they will haul it out of your garage and you will get to reduce tax liability. Folks in the opensource trade are not that naive

As if donating a broken car to opensource was not not insulting enough, Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman first said that HP will develop webOS tablets and later company updated it’s commitment to Windows8. Whitman was quoted saying: “we’ll continue to invest in the existing tablet ecosystem” and in the near term “will bet heavily with Windows.”

So let me understand this – Whitman wants to bet heavily with Windows but expects Open Source community to jump all over WebOS? Good luck!

]]> http://ibrahimsajidmalick.com/charitable-giving-hp-donates-webos-to-open-source-community/1760/feed/ 1 http://ibrahimsajidmalick.com/usa-lost-global-financial-hegemony/1684/ http://ibrahimsajidmalick.com/usa-lost-global-financial-hegemony/1684/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 01:31:22 +0000 Dr. Shams Hamid http://ibrahimsajidmalick.com/usa-lost-global-financial-hegemony/1684/ The global financial order with the hegemony of the United States has broken down and a new order with a new hegemony is taking time to emerge as China is refusing to assume the vacant central role.

The international monetary system is in chaos trying to establish order to avert currency war and trade protectionism. China with the highest growth rate and surplus and massive forex reserve has emerged as the new global financial super power and she is resisting pressure to assume its global financial responsibility.

Forex buyers are turning to gold as dollar’s fate is uncertain and Yuan is not freely available. American dollar is expected to drop as part of U.S. strategy of “Quantitative Easing” to enhance exports. U.S. manufacturers are asking to devalue dollar by 40% to make American products globally competitive.

Iran’s foreign exchange reserves have increased by billions of dollars because Iran imported tons of gold when the price of gold was $656 per ounce and now gold price has risen to $1,230 dollars per ounce.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick has suggested a gold standard in view of the uncertainty of the fate of currencies in the global financial market. Others foresee the ascendancy of two or three reserve currencies in the world besides dollars.

G20 summit in Seoul merely endorsed the agenda agreed upon in G20 ministerial meeting in Gyeongju to move toward a market determined exchange rate, to restrain from competitive devaluation of national currencies, to implement IMF reform, and to introduce guidelines on current account balance.

G20 head of states meeting failed to persuade China to accept the leading role as the global financial leader substituting United States. The global financial market is left without a captain as United States has relinquished its captaincy and China refuses to accept it.

The Fed said in a statement “The pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow”. The Fed has already spent 1.7 trillion dollars on buying U.S. government debt and mortgage-linked bonds to boost the sluggish economy without much success so far.

The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee said that it will “purchase a further 600 billion dollars of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011, at a pace of about 75 billion dollars per month.” The Fed has kept the target range for the funds rate at a historic low level of zero to 0.25%.

Justifying their policy the Fed said, “Household spending is increasing gradually, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Business spending on equipment and software is rising, though less rapidly than earlier in the year, while investment in non residential structures continues to be weak”.

The policy of second round of quantitative easing raised domestic and global concern for the uncertainty of its effectiveness. Thomas Hoenig, Kansas City Fed President, had expressed concern on October 25 that quantitative easing may lead to another boom and bust cycle calling the proposal “a bargain … with the devil”.

Pointing to double-digit unemployment rate and Fed’s expressed concern of deflation Bernanke criticizes Feds for their failure to keep unemployment and inflation on sustainable levels. Bernanke also points out that Feds have no other tools to boost economic growth.

Martin Feldstein, Harvard University economist, wrote in the Financial Times article published on Wednesday, “The Federal Reserve’s proposed policy of quantitative easing is a dangerous gamble with only a small potential upside benefit and substantial risks of creating asset bubbles that could destabilize the global economy”.

Second round of quantitative easing can further lower the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies resulting in boost for U.S. exports. Decline of U.S. dollar will also reduce the value of China’s forex reserves of 2.65 trillion dollars.

United States needs to invest more in research, development and capacity building to create new jobs for Americans, while cutting its defense spending to stall its exponentially growing deficit. Criticizing China for United States economic woes will not help republican and democrat politicians in earnestly focusing on the challenges and resolving them.

US defense spending accounts for 46% of world’s total defense expenses. Two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have added more than a trillion dollars to American deficit and neither war has yielded any financial dividends for American people.

China can neither be blamed for extraordinary US consumption of 70% of the GDP, nor for providing cheaper labour for US manufacturers. The consumption spree worked for US during 1950s economic downturn and later, transforming US into world’s largest market. US spending on research and development and ‘ease of business’ helped it in becoming the top producer of advanced technology and the biggest manufacturer of industrial goods.

Global communication and global economy today has evolved emerging markets with cheaper skilled labour attracting enterprises to shift their manufacturing base from US to Mexico or China for instance.

Shifting manufacturing bases from US has caused job loss for US skilled workers. When GM motors can pay $7 an hour to Mexican workers for the same job that they have to pay $14 to a US workers, then it makes less economic sense not to move their plants from US to Mexico.

Fareed Zakaria recently published an incising analysis to restore the American dream in Times magazine. He mentions that the American dream is no longer the only dream in the world today. Emerging economies have given birth to new dreams.

Fareed suggests a multi-pronged approach to United States to overcome economic challenges of high un-employment and alarming national debt to restore the American dream.

He recommends a shift from consumption to investment, investing more in research, technology, development and training by controlling health care costs, and pensions at the state level.

Fareed writes “My proposals are inherently difficult because they ask the left and right to come together, cut some spending, pare down entitlements, open up immigration for knowledge workers, rationalize the tax code — and then make large investments in education and training, research and technology, innovation and infrastructure.”

Like all other leading journalists of US mainstream media, Fareed avoids mentioning US defense budget that has ballooned over the years adding exponentially to US deficit.
Democrat and Republican politicians are not discussing curtailment of US defense budget either.

US president Dwight Eisenhower had warned American public of the dangers of developing a huge military industrial complex in his speech in 1961 and his words still resonate. He said, “We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

The premiere blamed resource and environment bottleneck, enlarging income gap, poor technological innovation, unbalanced industrial structure, and uneven urban and rural development for China’s unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable development.

He said that to boost domestic consumption turning potential demand into actual buying power in the next five years China has to further encourage urbanization, improve income distribution, expand social security network, augment basic public services, and upgrade consumption structure.

Wen said that hastening the transformation of the economic growth would move the country’s economic and social development to a new. He called the move “a profound reform in the country’s economic and social development”.

Wen emphasized a balance approach to guarantee firm and fairly rapid economic development, adjustment of economic structure and avoidance of possible inflation.

Recounting the achievements of the last five years, Wen mentioned that the thousand year old agricultural tax was eliminated, free nine-year compulsory education was attained throughout the country, and a social security system was established in both urban and rural areas in past five years.

He considered it a main assignment of Chinese government during next five years to consolidate and expand upon China’s accomplishment to deal with the adverse effects of the global financial crisis.

The Chinese government released complete transcript of Premier Wen Jiabao’s justification of five year economic and social development plan for the country on Thursday, which was adopted earlier at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee.

The state Council will draft the new five-year program and it is likely to be reviewed at the fourth session of the eleventh National People’s Congress next year in March.

The shift of economic power from western industrial nations to the emerging nations is finally recognized by the international financial institutions in a joint communiqué released after G20 meeting in South Korea on Saturday.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Bloomberg Television after G20 ministerial meeting “We’ve had a long period where the major economies, principally Japan, Europe and the United States, bore all the burden of cooperation on exchange rate questions. They dominated all those discussions, but the world’s changed dramatically and it’s very important that we’re discussing these things with China, with India, with Brazil, with the emerging market economies all around the world that are growing so rapidly.”

US treasury secretary had failed to develop consensus among the members of developed western nations to bully China into accepting monetary policy recommended by USA in IMF meeting few weeks ago. Pointing to China Geithner had also demanded that IMF should not accept emerging economies claim to participation in the governance of International Monetary Fund until they rapidly appreciate their currency.

China called US recommended monetary strategy a “shock therapy” and declined to abruptly raise the value of yuan by 40 percent arguing that such a currency appreciation will create social unrest and economic instability in China. Japan and Brazil had intervened to protect their national economic interests by limiting their currency appreciation prior to the IMF meeting.

The IMF meeting had failed to push US agenda, but it had a sobering affect on the global players. German minister severely criticized US monetary policy in a visit to China after the meeting. Emerging economies expressed their fears that USA wants to flood their economies with cheap US dollars.

Economists pointed out that US wants to reduce its debts to China by making them appreciate yuan to shrink its 2.65 trillion forex reserves kept in US dollars. Most of the countries have their forex reserves in US dollars and cheaper dollars will cause their forex reserve to evaporate.

The pronouncement of IMF governance reform to include emerging economies in the joint statement at the end of G20 ministerial summit came as no surprise since at the conclusion of the IMF meeting earlier its chief, Straus Kahn had announced that the Fund is preparing a deal for the participation of emerging economies in the governance of IMF.

US treasury chief Geithner acceded, before heading to China for an unscheduled visit after the Group of 20 meeting, “They’re (China) an independent country, a large economy. They need the flexibility to run their policies in a way that makes sense for China. And that requires that their exchange rate move up over time as they’re now doing and we want to see that continue. They’ve got a ways to go but I think they’re committed to do that.”

Realizing the rapid transfer in economic power from western industrial nations to emerging Asian nations the G20 finance ministers and central bankers in a joint statement said “Key elements includes shifts in quota shares to dynamic emerging markets and developing countries (EMDC) and to underrepresented countries of over 6 percent”.

Finance ministers of G20 countries agreed to refrain from competitive devaluation of their currency to avoid currency and trade war among the 20 major world economies.

Finance ministers meeting succeeded in developing consent to “move towards more market determined exchange rate systems”. The emphasis was added by replacing the earlier used term “market oriented” to “market determined” exchange rate systems.

South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-Hyun, the chairman of the two-day meeting, declared the meeting successful. He said the meetings have ended the currency row that had created suspicions and volatility in the global economy.

Despite currency disputes and IMF governance reform issue the ministerial meeting finally managed to reach accord as the world leaders worked diligently to settle the differences.

South Korea hosted the two-day meeting of finance ministers and bankers from 20 member countries, and chiefs of International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and the leaders of the five non-member countries.

The released joint statement of the G20 ministerial meeting will provide foundation for the forthcoming G20 summit negotiations on November 11-12 in Seoul.

Market analysts forecast a stronger dollar if the G20 finance minister meeting developed a consensus not to devalue their currencies. A stronger dollar turns buyers using foreign currency away from commodities since they are priced in dollars.

Investors are watchful while they wait for Federal Reserve decision next month as how to fuel the economy. Majority of investors are expecting Policy makers to start buying bonds in November that will exert more pressure on the US dollars.

Metals, grains, energy contracts all dropped on Thursday. Gold shed US$18.60 settling at US$1,325.60 an ounce.

In contracts for December, Crude lost US$1.98 to US$80.56 a barrel, Silver dropped 72.5 cents to US$23.139 an ounce, copper lost 1.2 cents to settle at US$3.7815 a pound, and palladium shed US$4.35 to US$586.30 an ounce, wheat dropped 14.25 cents to US$6.6875 a bushel, and corn fell 9.25 cents to US$5.6425 a bushel.