Why F-16's Hurt Pakistan? A Canadian Explains...

Before talking about the disaster in Pakistan, I would like to tell you about this marvelous “killing machine” called F-16. You know what a F-16 is, don’t you? Well, it’s one of the most popular fighter planes in the world.

They cost approximately $40 million each. And of course, during its lifetime, it will have cost one and half the purchase price for maintenance, repairs (and windshield washer – you wouldn’t believe the insane price of each can of windshield washer that these toys use).

So, coming back to the disaster in Pakistan. Terrible! If we weren’t talking about a muslim country, we could refer to the flooding as being of biblical proportions: 20,000,000 disaster victims. Just appalling.

Over the last two or three days we've been hearing voices accusing the West of a lack of generosity towards a very seriously afflicted Pakistan. People are being told off in Canada, France and Great-Britain. In yesterday’s La Presse, my colleague Marie-Claude Malboeuf mentioned that a humanitarian coalition had barely collected $200,000 for Pakistan whereas, during the same period of time, a phenomenal sum of $3,600,000 was collected for Haitians after the earthquake that devastated their country. The NGO (non-governmental organizations) are “stamping their feet”. They are getting impatient. They are clamoring of catastrophe and cholera. The most tragic thing is that they are probably right.

Internationally, the UNO has collected only 40% of the 460 million dollars needed for urgent aid. Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister of England has berated the international community for its stinginess: “The reaction of the international community is deplorable.”

But I’m extrapolating. I was talking about the F-16. Quite recently, a country acquired a brand new fleet of twenty or so of these fantastic killers in the air.

Which country was this now?

Yep, PAKISTAN.

Before going any further, I’m warning you: the writer of this article is a naive journalist. A naive journalist who admits it candidly and who wants to know: If Pakistan had $1.4 billion to acquire fighter planes from Lockheed very recently, why doesn’t Pakistan have $460 million to help its own “drenched” citizens?

I apologize to the Red Cross, to CARE, to Oxfam and other non-governmental organizations, but I, for one, will not give one red penny towards the humanitarian relief in Pakistan.

I will NOT give a penny to help Pakistan because Pakistan never had any problem buying military equipment or getting financial help to buy some.

I don’t mind helping Haiti, a small country that has nothing (except corrupted rulers). I don’t mind giving for help to Africa; it’s the least I can do.

I will not give to Pakistan as I will not give to the New Orleans fishermen who have lost their source of income since the oil disaster caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.

Zachary Richard (a Cajun singer from New Orleans) is going to produce, with the help of many Quebecois singers, a CD which profits will be given to the New Orleans fishermen. Then, they’re planning a charity concert. Concerts are very nice. Musical charity is very nice too. And I do sympathize with the New Orleans fishermen.

But here again, it’s your naive journalist who is talking. I wonder why I should give one penny to the inhabitants of the richest country in the history of humanity, whose source of income was annihilated by a giga-multinational company with a market valuation of $120 billion US, and belonging to one of the most lucrative industries – energy – on this planet.

It seems to me that the United States of America, that BP, that the energy industry have enough money to compensate the New Orleans fishermen and their families and the offspring of their families until 2060, at least.

But let’s come back to PAKISTAN. On July 19th, the New York Times published a condemning article on the tax system of Pakistan. A banana republic tax system, where the rich concocted a way to avoid paying taxes.

I’m not talking about not paying a little income tax… I’m talking about total tax evasion. I’m talking about a country where 10 million people should be paying taxes, but only 2.5 million do. And all of this is legal. The rich managed to come up with a plan which dispenses them from paying taxes. The New York 

Times mentioned that average – average! - worth (?) of Pakistani parliamentarians is $900,000. Nawaz Sharif, the Opposition leader, and a millionaire hasn’t, for his part, paid any income taxes in 2005, 2006 and 2007. “This system favours elitists, (a system by elitists for elitists) says Riyaz Hussein Naqvi, Pakistani a retired public servant who worked as a tax collector for 38 years. It is a distorted system in which the poor pays for the rich.”

What The Times did not mention but which you probably already know – I know that you read the international news in dailies with great interest – is that Pakistan already has nuclear arms. In fact, it owns countless nuclear missiles.

So, if I recap all this…

Pakistan is an oligarchy (a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes) which exempts the rich from paying income tax. Pakistan has money to buy F-16s. Pakistan has money to keep an atomic arsenal capable of destroying half the planet!

I am not that naive after all… Pakistan has the means to help its own people.

Note from Pierre (the fellow who send this article around): If I remember well, on September 11th 2001, when the Twin Towers in New York were destroyed by terrorists, yes I do remember very well having seen live television coverage showing adults and children from Iran, Pakistan and other muslim countries, dancing in the streets and having a whale of a time because the United States had been touched right in the heart. They were elated because thousands of Americans were killed.

Well now that they’re in deep sh.., they ask for our help!!! And what will they do to us in five years, in ten years?

NO THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

By Patrice Lagacé

La Presse

Montréal

*The views expressed in this post are solely the views of Patrice Lagacé and in no way represents the views of the blog owner. The same has been posted here with the sole purpose of sharing the article with the readers of this blog.

But a question that is really worth asking here here is 'Why is there so much hatred among people against Muslim countries?' - After all one can't clap with one hand nor there can be a smoke without a fire. It is time for all the leaders of the nations - elected or otherwise to stop mis-leading people and to work collectively towards global peace. It is also high time we all do some soul searching and think where & when did the world take a wrong turn for the worse?

Divide And Rule India - Then And Now.....

'United We Stand & Divided We Fall' 

- a phrase well known to all of us - it has been a moral of many a stories that we all have heard during our growing up years and at the same time pages of history are full of real life illustrations of how unity has helped most of the nations and have been destroyed by disunity.

India, perhaps is one of the biggest example of what unity and disunity does to a nation. Unity is what gave India its independence, but the disunity gave India - partition and slavery. India was a country of small princely states and due to disunity among the princes and kings, there were various attacks by foreign rulers and even British took maximum advantage  of discord among various rulers and easily converted India into one of their colonies. Scars and wounds of partition that British gave us, have still not healed and the pain is still felt by India.

Although Indian history is in abundance with lessons of how divisive policies destroyed this once upon a time great country, politicians of today have chose to forget the history lessons and of course it also doesn't help that most of the politicians are not educated and wouldn't know the history of the land they represent. The way the politicians are running amok in a rat race to gain power, will soon make India a country with divided states rather than a super power or a united secular sovereignty that it is today.

Post-Independence India had 14 States and 7 Union Territories which has now become 28 States and 7 Union Territories. Some of the states where created by States Reorganisation Act of 1956, but others were created by dividing a state on the lines of linguistic and religious differences. Now we are facing the rancor for a separate state of Telangana and as well as the the problems in Kashmir are known to everyone. Certain decisions taken by politicians post-independence are coming to haunt us after six decades of independence. During the 1947, the politicians committed and agreed to restructure India on linguistic and religious basis and hence some of the states were formed on these lines where as some were left as they were and now taking a leaf out of that history, the politicians of today, albeit for their personal political mileage, are demanding the fulfillment of promises made in the past era - Kashmir being a big glaring and burning example of the same. 

It is really surprising that our politicians will go through each and every word and sentence of the constitutional history to further their political supremacy, but will not pay heed to what India has had to bear in the guise of divisive politics. Of course it is not entirely correct on our part to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of  our politicians, as they are one of us and are elected by us to represent us and the system. One can't expect them to become pious and God-like overnight as soon as they become politicians. 10 out of 10 times one will reap what they sow and in today's time it is true that each and everyone of us wants to be all powerful, influential and famous, whichever way we can. It is also our apathy towards our country in general that have given our politicians leeway that they can get away with anything.

But it is high time now when we all wake up and say enough is enough.  We, as the public and our elected representative open up their eyes to see how the power rat race is hurting the country. The divisive politics destroyed the royal rulers of India and the same thing will happen to our rulers of today. Due to the stoicism and ruthless stubbornness of our politicians, India is on the destructive path leading to regional ghettos. In these ghettos, the rulers of the state (chief ministers/leaders of influential political parties) will divide people on the lines of language/religion/culture etc. and will drag India back to the days that were similar to that of Pre-British days, where in basic human characteristics of self preservation will once again surface and each ghetto or regional state will safeguard  only their personal well-being and enrichment. The country will not benefit from this regionalism as macro decisions and economics will be rendered redundant and micro economics will rule the roost.  This will not only hinder the country's development but also harm it's citizens.

Today if an American is asked as to where he is from, his evident reply will be that he is from the state of Texas or Indiana or California etc, but very rarely will he say that he is from America, and this is exactly what I am dreading will happen to us Indians. Today we proudly say we are from India, but a day will come when we start saying that we are from Karnataka or Maharashtra or Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh....

If we don't open our eyes now, it may be too late before we realize and maybe have already been enslaved by either China or America. As it is today our markets have been in the clutches of Chinese manufacturers and at the same time we are being bullied into submission over various policies by American politicos.....

Why India Needs Narendra Modi?

I cam across an article by Mr. Suhel Seth that had been posted online on 19/10/2008.

I am recreating the same in whole without any amendments as wanted to share Mr. Suhel Seth's views with my readers.

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Why India needs Narendra Modi?
Suhel Seth
Posted online: Oct 19, 2008 at 2338 hrs

Let me begin with a set of disclosures: I have perhaps written more articles against Modi and his handling of the post-Godhra scenario than most people have; I have called him a modern-day Hitler and have always said that Godhra shall remain an enduring blemish not just on him but on India’s political class. I still believe that what happened in Gujarat during the Godhra riots is something we as a nation will pay a heavy price for. But the fact is that time has moved on. As has Narendra Modi. He is not the only politician in India who has been accused of communalism. It is strange that the whole country venerates the Congress Party as the secular messiah but it was that party that presided over the riots in 1984 in which over 3,500 Sikhs died: thrice the number killed in Gujarat.

The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India’s political structure. Three weeks ago, I had gone to Ahmedabad to address the YPO and I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Modi. I called him the evening before and I was given an appointment for the very day I was getting into Ahmedabad. And it was not some official meeting but instead one at his house. As frugal as the man Modi is.

And this is something that the Gandhis and Mayawatis need to learn from Modi. There were no fawning staff members; no secretaries running around; no hangers on…just the two of us with one servant who was there serving tea. And what was most impressive was the passion which Modi exuded. The passion for development; the passion for an invigorated Gujarat; the passion for the uplifting the living standards of the people in his state and the joy with which he recounted simple yet memorable data-points. For instance, almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat. But it was industry that was equally close to his heart.

It was almost like a child, that he rushed and got a coffee table book on GIFT: the proposed Gujarat Industrial City that will come up on the banks of the Sabarmarti: something that will put the Dubais and the Hong Kongs of this world to shame. And while on the Sabarmati, it is Modi who has created the inter-linking of rivers so that now the Sabarmati is no longer dry.

He then spoke about how he was very keen that Ratan Tata sets up the Nano plant in Gujarat: he told me how he had related the story of the Parsi Navsari priests to Ratan and how touched Ratan was: the story is, when the Navsari priests, (the first Parsis) landed in Gujarat, the ruler of Gujarat sent them a glass of milk, full to the brim and said, there was no place for them: the priests added some sugar to the milk and sent it back saying that they would integrate beautifully with the locals and would only add value to the state.

Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one’s mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that. People like Rajnath Singh are simply weak irritants I would imagine. He also believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to counter terrorism and in fact he told me how he had alerted the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA about the impending bomb blasts in Delhi and they did not take him seriously. And then the September 13 blasts happened! It was this resolve of Modi’s that I found very admirable. There is a clear intolerance of terrorism and terrorists which is evident in the way the man functions; now there are many cynics who call it minority-bashing but the truth of the matter is that Modi genuinely means business as far as law and order is concerned.

I left Modi’s house deeply impressed with the man as Chief Minister: he was clearly passionate and what’s more deeply committed. When I sat in the car, I asked my driver what he thought of Modi and his simple reply was Modi is God. Before him, there was nothing. No roads, no power, no infrastructure. Today, Gujarat is a power surplus state. Today, Gujarat attracts more industry than all the states put together. Today, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination for almost every multi-national and what’s more, there is an integrity that is missing in other states.

After I finished talking to the YPO (Young President’s Organisation) members, I asked some of them very casually, what they thought of Modi. Strangely, this was one area there was no class differential on. They too said he was God.

But what they also added very quickly was if India has just five Narendra Modis, we would be a great country. I don’t know if this was typical Gujarati exaggeration or a reflection of the kind of leadership India now needs! There is however, no question in my mind, that his flaws apart, Narendra Modi today, is truly a transformational leader! And we need many more like him!

The writer is Managing Partner, Counselage