Day before yesterday (Oct 28) I finished reading,
Stoicism, by Rev. W. W. Capes. It was published in 1880, as part of a series – Chief Ancient Philosophies, by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London.
This book discusses Stoicism in a historical perspective, focusing on its development via its chief philosophers, such as Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelus Antoninus, and its relation to early Christian teachings.
The Chapters give a glimpse of the contents of the book:
I. The Thought and Character of Socrates
II. The Cynics
III. The Rise of Stoicism and its Relation to the Spirit of the Age
IV. Stoicism in the rigour of its Essential Principles
V. Stoicism tempered by Concessions to Common Sense
VI. Stoicism at Rome under the Republic
VII. The Critics and Enemies of Stoicism under the Early Empire
VIII. The Social Status of the Professional Moralists at Rome
IX. The
Is it for the Supreme Court to see what’s happening to the citizens in Balochistan and Karachi?
Or there is none to heed? It seems so!
I think Nero was a far better person than the present federal and provincial rulers. At least, he had a knack for playing fiddle; whereas the present ruling party and its allies and the state machinery under them are interested only in making sure they remain in the government and continue robbing the citizens’ tax money.
They do not care a dime for the security of citizens’ life and property; let these cockroaches be robbed and die. Especially, in Karachi man-slaughtering has the semblance of a political game.
But the solution to this problem is not a political one; it is administrative! Until and unless it is treated as an administrative issue, there is going to be no improvement in the law and order
The street intellect as a rule and the scholarly intellect generally live and thrive on the staple food of Conspiracy Theories in Pakistan.
Nothing is so acceptable and universal here as the occurrence of conspiracy theories. Be they daily incidents, or the historical events of national or international significance, they all originate, it is understood, from the womb of certain eternal conspirators, the selection of which depends on the nature of the event to be explained. Descartes ought to be jealous of this Certitude!
Likewise, be it academia or any think tank (an animal so rare in Pakistan!), or an intellectual, literary, economic, historical, religious, political organization, or any such thing, or the all-powerful entity of the state and government of Pakistan (powerful versus the ordinary citizens only!), they all solve and resolve the problem of explaining all the happenings by taking recourse to this or that conspiracy theory or
The states, or political elites, throughout the world, are successful: they have come to control almost all the aspects of individual citizen’s life in most of the countries.
They control the “creation and cultivation” of human beings!
They do this:
1. By capturing the state and its institutions;
2. By establishing ministries of information and communication (and things like that);
3. By controlling education, especially by deciding what is to be taught in schools, colleges, universities, and other educational entities;
4. By establishing public sector education;
5. By regulating private sector education;
6. By controlling print and electronic media;
7. By setting up their own print and electronic media entities;
8. By regulating print and electronic media;
9. By setting up their own news agencies;
10. By inserting intellectual and ideological strictures in their constitutions;
11. By instituting plethora of such laws, rules and regulations which reduce the day to
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Pakistan is a victim of political parties whose motto is: politics of the mafia, by the mafia, for the mafia!
Every moment and every day the citizens of Pakistanare being inescapably entangled more and more in the tentacles of mafia politicians. Sometimes in the name of Revolution, sometimes in the name of Religion, sometimes in the name of Democracy, sometimes in the name of Enlightened Moderation, or such other traps, these mafia politicians fool and exploit the people. But they never talk of what the Pakistani citizens have desperately been wanting from the day one, and what they really need at the moment also. This is Rule of Law, which was introduced first by the British in the sub-continent. Tragically, though the British are still reviled both by the Left and the Right equally, unfortunately with their departure, the Rule of Law also departed – at least in the
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Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below:
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On October 12, a letter appeared in
The Frontier Post.
Here is its text:
“Hurdles of Pakistani bloggers
Why Pakistani bloggers cannot enjoy journalists’ legal privileges? The journalists, media persons, news anchors always enjoy legal privileges and certain immunities across the world as compared to the ordinary citizens of the State. The journalists all over the world are protected under media shield laws that allow journalists not to identify their sources.
However, when it comes to bloggers who are also regarded as Online Columnists, no such exemption, shield body or legal protection is offered to them as afforded to journalists. In this digital age of Internet world, where blogging and Online media have ground their bases, same sort of luxury and exemption must be granted to bloggers as well, so that they could value their worth the same as journalists do. No blogger either from Pakistan or from
Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year Pakistani girl student and activist keen on getting education and advocating it for other girls, has been targeted by Taliban!
In this context, I would like to point out two things:
1. Every time Taliban repeat such a heinous crime, there is abundant outrage and endless condemnations both by the state and not-state elements. When such crimes are committed by non-Taliban ordinary or not-ordinary persons, or by the Pakistani state itself, that evokes far less condemnation from the non-state elements as well as other state elements. What does that amount to? That indicates what the Taliban go for is not that new or strange or unacceptable in this land; instead that means the Taliban has no right to do such things, this right belongs to us only!
That brings my second point to light.
2. The crimes of the Taliban put the Pakistani state, the
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below:
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Pakistan is a china shop and the bull is its ruling elites. They are on the rampage since the day this shop was established. The stories of which come to light, I say which come to light, tell of the ways the bull is playing in and with the china the shop contains.
The bull of the present government of the Pakistan Peoples Party is a unique bull which believes in breaking the shop itself. The latest story of this dispensation is heart-wrenching and kills the hope that this country could ever be ruled by laws.
Today’s The Express Tribune ran a story “Likely to surrender – Ex-chairman of OGRA plays hide-and-seek with sleuths.” Take time to read this story which reveals how the Governor of Punjab, and Secretary General of Pakistan Peoples Party tried to protect Tauqir Sadiq, ex-chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and the main accused
As for Photography, I believe in NO Manipulation!
It’s the Photographer, and then his Camera and the World, the combination of which may produce a work of art!
The availability of an Opportunity for that combination to work wonder depends both on Chance and the Photographer’s Eye.
All the photo-manipulating tools and things like that are not for the Photographer to take advantage of but what the traditional photographer used to do, such as cropping and minor adjustments which do not disturb (which otherwise is known as “improvement”) the originality of the photo taken spontaneously.
A photographer’s Basic Tool is Camera. If in order to produce a work of art, he is dependent on such manipulations, he is not a Photographer, but a Graphic Designer, entirely a different branch of Art where he belongs to try his talent.
I use my camera with this ‘Philosophy of Photography’ in mind, and
