Mushy the moron!

So Mushy the moron has outdone even himself this time. He is out full force promoting his new memoir – ” In the Line of Fire” all across town and late night comedy shows. He was on Conan O’Brien predicting an electoral loss of both Bush and Osama – if they went head to head in rural Pakistan. As if he knew anything about elections. And even more bizarrely, in a joint press conference with Bush, he was asked a question around the whole controversy of Richard Armitage threatening the Pakis immediately post 9/11 – to bomb them back to the stone age – and his reply was that the details were in his book – and that they should buy it to get the details!

Anyways, so coming back to his memoirs, as most things with Mushy – its so ridiculous – it makes one obviously t wonder how he ever made the head of state of a country. Apparently, this is the absolute first time when a sitting head of state has ever written a memoir – and then marketing it in such an obvious fashion. It is quite amazing literally to see this happening – there was some commentary in the mainstream press about the inappropriateness of the whole thing – but I think, to a large extent, everyone is maintaining a dignified diplomatic silence. While Mushy goes around different late night talk shows – and declaring why they should buy the book. Amazing.

Now, about the accuracy. From folks who have had previews, Mushy talks about everything starting from 911 and the war on terror ( and his subsequent volte face – from being a Taliban lover to a Taliban basher), from the failed Agra summit to Kargil ( which apparently he says was a successful mission), from AQ Khan ( who, hilariously, according to him, provided centrifuge technology to India’s nuclear program) etc.

So all in all, it should be an entertaining book  – a kind of book one reads and has a good laugh and wonders how such a man could have ever made it to the head of state (we all know how he did that…:))

A final thought – I was listening to an NPR program, where someone said Mushy is a great tactician – he knows how to hold on to his power (case in point: his recent peace accord with the northwest tribes) – but he’s a disastrous strategist. And if Pakistan is going to succeed as a nation, what it needs is a strategist and not a short term tactician.

India and Newspaper readership

India has the largest gross newspaper readership in the world. While some of that is understandable, given the massive population of India – one has to keep in mind that the the literacy rate in the country is around 60% – and literacy is quantified by the ability to sign one’s name correctly.

 

I was in India recently – and for the first time I noticed a trend that I havent seen before. And only probably, because this time, every morning, I would go out early to buy the day’s newspapers. And what I saw astounded me. Newspaper readership is so widespread – from the chaiwallas to the autowallas, from the Mother Dairy counter guy to the early morning Sabzi walla. Everyone would have a newspaper – either in English or in the vernacular – but the fact is, I would see a kind readership penetration, I rarely see in the United States – just as a layman.

 

The general arguments would be the prevalance of cable news – but then, that would be the same in both plances.

 

So I dont know what it is – I see in my educated middle-class peer circles, very few households even order newspapers. Even those from India.

 

So I think we are in good hands….a society that is naturally curious and wants to stay informed – portends well for it.

 

 

Papal Controversy

Couldn’t resist writing about the pope comment controversy. Much has been said and I dont really need to rehash what happened – but the incident sadly exemplifies all that is increasingly going wrong in the world today.

Initially I was rather surprised to see that such a speech actually made it by the Vatican Public Relations folks – but then as I thought about it, I began to realize that it was probably intentional.

At times like these, what can be a bigger headline grabber than the Pope quoting a medieval king commenting about a religion he is crusading against. My personal theory is that this has absolutely nothing to do with Islam. I think its a very calculated move on the part of the Vatican to re-energize the base.

At a time when church memberships are falling to perilous levels in Europe – what better way to revitalize the flock – than to talk about Islam derogatorily, let the muslim masses respond violently all over the world and then sit back and let the media do the rest. In the divided world we currently live in, such an event would automatically further polarize the masses on the lines of religion and race, and hopefully from the Vatican’s perspective, in the Roman Catholic Church.

Just my conspiracy theory – but I dont see any other logic why the head of the Catholic church would go around quoting some 14th century king’s opinion on Islam. And the Vatican, as history has shown, is not above some pretty low machinations to achieve its end.

Checking back in

Has been a while since I blogged here. Not because of the lack of news in the world or lack of my opinions on the news. Quite the contrary really.

However, the author was in India for sometime owing to some rather pressing personal circumstances and didnt have either the time or inclination to blog. However, the author is now back to his rather predictable existence. And therefore, should very soon start opining here again.

And no better time than a time like this. With Ahmedinajad in New York, with the pope causing a ruckus around the world – really no better time to start talking about world affairs.

So stay tuned.