Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • Why Pakistan chose to honor Charlie Wilson is beyond everyone, even the Texans

    by Fatima Bhutto, 16 January 2009

    The Daily Beast
    My Charlie Wilson War
    Why is the University of Texas naming a chair of Pakistan Studies after the notorious U.S. congressman who helped destabilize that country? Fatima Bhutto—niece of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto—demands an answer.
    Pakistan’s new government, the only in the world headed by two former convicts—who have their fingers on the button of a nuclear-armed state, no less—is nothing if not a keen purveyor of irony.
    There’s currently an effort (…)

  • Israel’s devastating attack on Gaza

    by Kamal Mitra Chenoy, 16 January 2009

    (The below article was published earlier in The Pioneer, January 10, 2009)
    Israel, Occupation and Hamas
    Israel’s devastating attack on Gaza is not about the makeshift rocket attacks against it by Hamas but about the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and seizure of valuable Palestinian resources like water which is in short supply in the region. That why the Israelis are one state that has no permanent borders but constantly expanding ones. It should be remembered that under (…)

  • India: Call for Cellular Silence Day on 61st death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

    by Ranjan Kamath, 16 January 2009

    Dear Friend
    The collective amnesia of the captains of Indian industry, Messrs.Tata, Mittal and Ambani embracing Narendra Modi and endorsing his candidature as future PM of India, disturbed me immensely.
    This petition is my humble effort to engage the conscience of corporate India and make it known to them that the Indian citizen is not to be trifled with.Just as we can vote for or against the poitician, we can pinch the corporate bottom-line in order to engage their attention to mend (…)

  • Bangladesh: The Long Wait For A War Crimes Trial

    by Julfikar Ali Manik, 16 January 2009

    Star Weekend Magazine
    The Trial We are Waiting For
    When Awami League Chief Sheikh Hasina announced her election manifesto in a jam-packed hall room on December 12, everyone was listening with rapt attention. Suddenly her supporters gave a huge round of applause breaking the silence. The jubilant applause was a clear message to Hasina, other politicians, foreign diplomats and journalists in the air-conditioned hall room of a five star hotel where the announcement had been made: even after (…)

  • The Challenge of Fundamentalism and Imperialism

    by Tarek Fatah, 16 January 2009

    Speech by Tarek Fatah North York Public Library, Toronto Hosted by Family of the Heart http://familyofheart.com/09/presentation_TF.htm January 11, 2009
    Can Secular Muslims work together?
    In October last year, a vigourous debate broke out on the Internet between conflicting viewpoints on the Taliban as espoused by two prominent Pakistanis, both claiming roots in the Left. One of them was Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistan’s leading peace activist who taught at the MIT and currently teaches (…)

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