Pakistan – the land of breathtaking scenery, majestic history, glorious bazaars and media houses that totally reinvent the meaning of the phrase “objective journalism”. In this oasis of unbiased reporting, truth is secondary, facts take the backseat, opinions – loud ones at that – are presented as gospel and neutrality is a dish best served…
Hiding behind the dagger and stabbing with the cloak! This is how Ken Clarke ridiculed the attempted failed coup against Gordon Brown in 2010. The orchestrators of this coup, Labour’s own Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, lacked both ambition and talent. That is why this coup started with an erroneous and empty email before midnight….
Elections have come and gone but their remnants can still be felt like aftershocks of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. Amidst it all – the high and mighty of Pakistani politics fight it out, sitting in an arena which mostly resembles a WWE ring, with all its fakery and downright lunacy. And what about the ever-burdened…
The Greeks have given us many things – democracy, philosophy, architecture, mythology, the Olympics – the list goes on. Another highly valuable Greek contribution to this world is logic. It was Aristotle, Plato and Socrates who were its biggest proponents and underpinned it with knowledge, analysis and judgement. Subsequently, societies were steeped in logical thinking…
The season of elections is again around us – or is it? As mysteries go, this one not only takes the cake but perhaps the whole bakery! After a lot of smoke and mirrors – the date is set, the contestants are ready and the Election Commission of Pakistan is in action! Pun intended. Ah,…
For a moment, consider this estimated yet appetising list of deposits and resources. Gold: 5.9 million ounces. Copper: 412 million tons. Coal: 19.5 billion tons. Natural Gas: 34 trillion cubic feet. This is not all, there are others as well! A conservative estimate puts the valuation of these vast reserves over $1 trillion! One would…
Almost all Western movies have one common shot at the end: a gunslinger riding into the sunset! This is to cap the story and showcase that whatever actions, achievements and results were possible – were indeed accomplished. As a matter of fact, this signals an end of one chapter and the beginning of another –…
The 2008 film Swing Vote was not a box office success. It was also panned by critics in equal measure. Even after all that, one line from the script stuck with me. Before I get to that, some context. The movie revolves around a fictional US presidential election where the fate of the vote comes…
For over a year now opinion in the golf world has been divided over the breakaway LIV golf league. Players, commentators and general public have been voicing their opinions – sometime quite vociferously – for or against this new enterprise. The main reason for this divisiveness is the fact that LIV golf is backed by…
“To fight a protracted war”. This is the literal translation of a four-character Chinese Chengyu idiom. It is thought to have been conceived by Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military strategist. In his era-defining book “The Art of War”, Sun Tzu says that “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”….
