Wadiblog

CIO is launching their local edition in Pakistan on the 5th of August at the Karachi Sheraton. Featured speakers feature Google Inc, OPEN Silicon Valley, IDC and SATC, along with an interactive panel discussion moderated by President of PASHA.

All those interested in attending can register by calling 0300 2133849 PRIOR to the event!

Cross-posted to OPEN Silicon Valley

Tradition, Technique, Technology – II ;

Contemporary artists from Pakistan

Featuring Farida Batool, Adeela Suleman and Ayaz Jokhio

Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto, July 17 – August 30

Opening Reception, Friday July 18, 2008, 6:00-9:00 p.m.

A great show case of 3 artists’ personal exploration of Pakistan’s history and how to deal with it.The press release says:“Working separately in Lahore and
Karachi, these three artists reference the transformation of heritage as a means of identifying the urgency to address issues of violence, sexuality and stereotyping. The artists included in this exhibition each take a unique approach to their art and its history that both challenges the viewer and allows for individual interpretations. ”

Siliconstani, ifaqeer, Abbas, and myself will be there on opening night. Hope to see you all there!

To learn more and to see an online preview:

http://www.aicongallery.com/exhibitions/2008-07-18_tradition-technique-technology-ii/pressrelease/

http://www.aicongallery.com/exhibitions/2008-07-18_tradition-technique-technology-ii/images/

For Directions:

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The Bay Area based Muslim Advocates Executive Director, Farhana Khera testified before the United States Senate Judicial Committee in Washington DC.

The hearing that occurred on June 25th centered on “Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel”.

The committee was presided by Senator Feingold. Amongst the list of witnesses, excluding an absent representative from the Department of Homeland Security were Farhana Khera, Executive Director of the Bay Area based Muslim Advocates group, Susan K. Gurley, Executive Director for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, Larry Cunigham, Assistant District Attorney of the Bronx, above many others.

Click to listen to hearing

On July 14th, 2008 Governor Howard Dean address the Pakistani-American community at OPEN FORUM 2008. Following are recordings from his keynote address.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Cross-posted to Siliconstani and OPEN Silicon Valley

If number of attendees and their active participation in a program is the litmus test of an event’s success then OPEN Forum 2008, Silicon Valley Chapter of Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America’s annual event, held on June 14, 2008, was hugely successful.

Here you see evening keynote speaker Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, speaking on ‘Leadership and Empowerment.’

See more pictures and report on
http://karachiphotoblog.blogspot.com/

In these times when the war on terror is raging high and western analysts are looking for bright spots in the Muslim world, to pin their hopes onto, Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s recently published English translation of Dastane-e-Amir Hamza (translated as Adventures of Amir Hamza) has been received with gusto. This translation has given western scholars a thick body of work to analyze and answer many questions.

“Are these people really evil? Were they always savages like they presently are? Are their folklores full of jihad lessons, misogynic themes, triumphant beheadings of infidels, and of older men getting married to underage girls?

Commentators such as William Dalrymple are exuberant that that is not the case. Reviewing Musharraf Farooqi’s translation, Dalrymple writes:

“At this perilous moment in history, the Hamza epic, with its mixed Hindu and Muslim idiom, its tales of love and seduction, its anti-clericalism (mullahs are a running joke throughout the book), its stories of powerful and resourceful women, and its mocking of male misogyny, is a reminder of an Islamic world the West seems to have forgotten: one that is imaginative and heterodox — and as far as can be from the puritanical Wahhabi Islam that the Saudis have succeeded in spreading throughout much of the modern Middle East.”

Dalrymple’s sigh of relief aside, Dastan-e-Amir Hamza has (or had at one time) the ultimate merit of entertaining early readers. Ten volumes of Amir Hamza were what children of my age read as their first collection of books. Amir Hamza was our first hero; to be like Amir Hamza was our dream –we wanted to go to distant places and conquer new lands, pretty much like how Amir Hamza did. Dastan-e-Amir Hamza gave us a chance to imagine a different, mesmerizing world, and it cemented in our value system the virtues of bravery, loyalty to friends, truthfulness, and steadfastness.

Toronto based Musharraf Ali Farooqi has been touring cities of North America, promoting ‘Adventures of Amir Hamza’. His recent talk at the Stanford University was arranged by the Center for South Asia and other sponsors.

The Tragedy of TIME. (Fear written in, upon realizing my limitations: 1993)

The TIME I don’t have - the time I don’t have..
deterring me from LOVE itself, is but the time I don’t have.

What I would do, to be with you - to teach you, guide you, help you through.
What I would pay to hold your hand - my legs would crumble, help me stand.
What I would give to see your sighs - to hear your laughter and your cries..
to share with you the little time - I WISH I HAD, that I don’t have….

When comes the day I EARN this time: I’ll fly your way, to CLAIM you mine..
and there DISCOVER - to my horror - that there is time, that YOU don’t have..

[The piece above bothered me to no end. I desired a way to undo the spell
of those sorry words. What came below, in Nov ‘04, -while playing with my firstborn- was a birthday present pre-packaged as a self-realized response:]

The Ecstasy of TIME! (Fear transmuted as the Power of Letting Go took hold.)

The time I do have, ooh, the time I DO have!
BRINGING to me LOVE itself, is but the time I DO have.

The work I do, the time I earn - is all done to be with you.
The things I yearn, and all I learn - are just better done with U!
The gift YOU are, All-Thanks is not, enough said for knowing You!
The Path is now so very clear - a loss for words you put me to!

The day has come I LEARN that time, is only what I DO with mine.. ~!~
.. and here discover, to my honor- that HERE is TIME, that I can have!

Guest Post by: Riaz Haq

Sunday, May 18, 2008: South Asians in Silicon Valley had a big weekend with both TiEcon 2008 (The Indus Entrepreneurs Convention) and HDF (Human Development Foundation) holding their annual events. These events brought out the powerful, rich and famous with origins in the sub-continent including former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Lord Nazir Ahmad and celebrity politician Tariq Aziz. While Mr. Shaukat Aziz was the keynote speaker on Thursday evening at the TiE Global charter member reception, the Human Development Foundation annual fundraiser was addressed by Lord Nazir Ahmad and Tariq Aziz, Ethan Casey among others.

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For Pakistan, May 12, 2007 was a momentous–and a depressing–day. If violence has always been a part of the Pakistani politics then the Karachi carnage of May 12 was the ugliest manifestation of that fact. It was the day when Pakistan’s military ruler decided to break the momentum of a growing opposition by charging his political proponents to tackle the lawyers’ movement. Over forty people died on May 12 but the strategy of scaring people with violence backfired. Opposition to Pervez Musharraf grew even stronger and Musharraf was forced to make several concessions.
Friends of South Asia, a group of Bay Area watchers of South Asian politics, observed May 12 by holding a talk and a discussion on Sunday, May 11. The commemorative program featured eminent Pakistani-American law professor Tayyab Mahmud as the main speaker and Ijaz Syed, Javed Ellahie, and Dabbir Tirmizi as panelists who discussed various facets of the Pakistani judicial crisis. The program was titled “Pakistan’s Judicial Crisis and Remembering Karachi May 12 carnage.”
Tayyab Mahmud in his speech said that the Pakistani coup d’etat of 2007 was unique in the world history, because unlike other coups that one was staged to oust judges. Mahmud also said that the Pakistani events of last year should be seen in the bigger context of developing world’s response to the western hegemony.
In the panel discussion Javed Ellahie said that the lawyers’ movement in which roughly five thousand lawyers achieved a lot for the whole nation was unprecedented in the history of Pakistan. Dabbir Tirmizi said his party, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf, did not have any hope in either Nawaz Sharif or Asif Zardari in instating impartial judiciary in Pakistan. Ijaz Syed apprised audience of the latest political situation and said that if the coalition of PPP and PML(N) breaks apart on the issue of deposed judges, then things would move towards the original “deal” that US wanted to broker between PPP and Pervez Musharraf.
With the crisis around the deposed judges dragging on, Friends of South Asia (FOSA) plans on arranging similar programs to raise political awareness on Pakistan among the local population.