The Big Picture

The Pakistani version of Taliban has also gone under a metamorphosis. What started as local Taliban or neo Taliban were then called fasadis and now terrorists. Following the US’s mulling over withdrawal from Afghanistan, they came to be classified into good and bad.

A great roar goes up as the match starts, and there is a lot of shouted advice to the players. The chap on my right, who is hanging on to his impressive motorcycle helmet for dear life, keeps admonishing the Spanish players for their inability to score in the first half, saying 'go right, now left, kick it into the net, whoaaaaa, whaaaat's wrong with you??!"

At the Shell's eco-marathon each car is an aerodynamic work of art

Unfortunately, most of us have a mindset that if a thing doesn’t belong to us, why should we care for it? And it doesn’t end there. Take our streets, parks, beaches and so on.

US Afghan strategy has been dealt one blow after another of late, and the war efforts seem to be faced with a much greater resistance and criticism, both from within and without. The Af-Pak policy seems to be in a serious jeopardy after the current stream of events.

For the literalists, or more specifically for Wahabis, Sufis and their shrines are unislamic and those who visit these places are idolaters and they should be killed to purify the “Umma”. For Wahabis Shiism, Sufism and rationalism corrupt Islam and the duty of the Wahabi believer is to eliminate these elements to purify Islam to restore it to its original form.

It is a battlefield. The stage is set, the dance floor looks inviting and the props are ready. It is every man for himself especially when he/she is dancing in a group. The wedding dancers as you know, come in two varieties – the paid and the unpaid. In this piece, the unpaid lot takes the cake, as it is a lot more fun to watch the exploited.

The ease with which General Stanley McChrystal was sacked should not allow us to shrug off the implications of his rebellion. McChrystal’s criticism of US civilian leadership is another cost of the Afghan war that America has to face- a clash between the military and the executive.

The importance of a good captain cannot be overstated – unlike other popular team sports the captain is a pivotal figure in cricket.