Nothing’s changed
In Karachi, the CM usually wakes up when roads have been turned into rivers and thinks it’s time to clean storm drains
anwer.mooraj@tribune.com.pk
First, there was the confusion about Eid. Something that happens every year. The Ruet-e-Hilal committee ticked the media off for acting like a Ruet-e-Hilal committee. And the fasting millions were eagerly awaiting news from Hawkeyes in Charsada or Kohat, who could spot the barest of crescents through the clouds. Then, certain politicians decided there’s no place like London to spend their Eid. In the meantime, men are still killing their wives. The public will never know what happened next because there is never a follow-up in the papers.
On the home front, Sartaj Aziz suppressed his righteous anger and with a heart-tugging optimism assured that everything would work out all right in the end — unlike some people in the government with their bantam pomposity, like a frustrated provincial bank manager.
The federal bureaucracy, with its ranks, hierarchy and Ottoman-style rule, must be wondering what is in store for them if the government changes. Meanwhile, Dar, the financial nabob, is trying to add a trillion rupees to the exchequer by widening the net of people who invested in property. At the same time, the Canadian Muslim evangelist who recently set up his tent in the capital, has decided to join the conspiracy against the prime minister.
On the international scene, the Iraqi army is getting the better of the Islamic State; there were some terrible blasts in Medina; the serial insulter who wants to sit in the White House is waiting for a nod from all the Republicans; and after Brexit the US is likely to get closer to Germany. Interestingly, in Germany, an intellectual is regarded as an important person, while in England an intellectual is still regarded with derision, a risibly pompous term that comes with an apology.
What is quite inexplicable is that President Obama, who has an irrepressible jaunty optimism, has issued a number of warnings that without effective gun control, the crime wave will not abate. Recently, George W Bush was, again, in the news when he was supposed to join Obama at the memorial in Dallas. I don’t know what it is, but when I think of George ‘Dubya’, I am reminded of that time in January, 1992, when he vomited into the lap of the then prime minister of Japan, Kiichi Miyazawa.
Enough of the West! Back to my home base. There was an item, or rather, a comment in The Express Tribune that, instead of enjoying the monsoon, the people of Karachi were afraid of the rain. Well, I happen to belong to the majority that suffers every time the electricity goes off for elongated periods. It was different when I was in Manila. I used to love the rain then. I would sit on a deck chair under a covered terrace and watch the sky open up and cleanse the whole city. When I had had enough I would go inside the drawing room and switch on the lights and listen to the Tres Rosas sing “Noche Azul”. It’s different in Karachi, where the chief minister usually wakes up when roads have been turned into rivers and thinks it’s time to clean the storm drains.
And then we have the prime minister, who is back in Pakistan and is fighting various conspiracies to unseat him. As the editor of The Express Tribune, Kamal Siddiqui, so rightly pointed out in an article some time ago, there is no government. I don’t know about Punjab and K-P but in Sindh, things are pretty bad, what with the electricity going off at the mere mention of black clouds. Its hunky dory in the diplomatic enclave in the capital, where there is no shortage of water and the electricity stays on even during a typhoon. Thereby hangs a tale.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2016.
On the home front, Sartaj Aziz suppressed his righteous anger and with a heart-tugging optimism assured that everything would work out all right in the end — unlike some people in the government with their bantam pomposity, like a frustrated provincial bank manager.
The federal bureaucracy, with its ranks, hierarchy and Ottoman-style rule, must be wondering what is in store for them if the government changes. Meanwhile, Dar, the financial nabob, is trying to add a trillion rupees to the exchequer by widening the net of people who invested in property. At the same time, the Canadian Muslim evangelist who recently set up his tent in the capital, has decided to join the conspiracy against the prime minister.
On the international scene, the Iraqi army is getting the better of the Islamic State; there were some terrible blasts in Medina; the serial insulter who wants to sit in the White House is waiting for a nod from all the Republicans; and after Brexit the US is likely to get closer to Germany. Interestingly, in Germany, an intellectual is regarded as an important person, while in England an intellectual is still regarded with derision, a risibly pompous term that comes with an apology.
What is quite inexplicable is that President Obama, who has an irrepressible jaunty optimism, has issued a number of warnings that without effective gun control, the crime wave will not abate. Recently, George W Bush was, again, in the news when he was supposed to join Obama at the memorial in Dallas. I don’t know what it is, but when I think of George ‘Dubya’, I am reminded of that time in January, 1992, when he vomited into the lap of the then prime minister of Japan, Kiichi Miyazawa.
Enough of the West! Back to my home base. There was an item, or rather, a comment in The Express Tribune that, instead of enjoying the monsoon, the people of Karachi were afraid of the rain. Well, I happen to belong to the majority that suffers every time the electricity goes off for elongated periods. It was different when I was in Manila. I used to love the rain then. I would sit on a deck chair under a covered terrace and watch the sky open up and cleanse the whole city. When I had had enough I would go inside the drawing room and switch on the lights and listen to the Tres Rosas sing “Noche Azul”. It’s different in Karachi, where the chief minister usually wakes up when roads have been turned into rivers and thinks it’s time to clean the storm drains.
And then we have the prime minister, who is back in Pakistan and is fighting various conspiracies to unseat him. As the editor of The Express Tribune, Kamal Siddiqui, so rightly pointed out in an article some time ago, there is no government. I don’t know about Punjab and K-P but in Sindh, things are pretty bad, what with the electricity going off at the mere mention of black clouds. Its hunky dory in the diplomatic enclave in the capital, where there is no shortage of water and the electricity stays on even during a typhoon. Thereby hangs a tale.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2016.