Kamila Shamsie on Granta best young novelists list

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LONDON: Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie and established best-seller Zadie Smith have been named to Granta magazine's list of best young British novelists – a once-a-decade roster with a reputation for predicting literary stars.   

The lineup of 20 writers under 40 also includes Taiye Selasi, Sarah Hall, Adam Foulds, Adam Thirlwell and Helen Oyeyemi.

The list includes 12 women and eight men, whose roots stretch from China, Nigeria, Ghana, the US, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

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Why are boring mostly anti-Pakistan epics published and given importance in the press, instead of some light hearted story about nothing in particular?

Fear and loathing in Karachi

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Minutes before sunset on Dec 27, 2007, television channels started airing news of the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi.

And minutes after, Pakistan’s democratic and political future plunged into darkness: what about the elections scheduled for Jan 8? The end of a dictator’s rule? The integrity of Pakistan?

The answers started coming in slowly over the days that followed.

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The apparent anarchy in Karachi, started with military precision and ended in the same manner. If the city really had descended to total chaos it would never have stopped. Lots people were killed and many buildings were destroyed and lots of private property. The people who carried it out have been not been caught. The violence started immediately after Benazir was dead, as if it had been planned from before.. None of the perpetrators have been found and arrested. It is obvious that they never will because they are above the law and can get away with anything. If that organisation is brought down it will bring peace to Karachi once and for all.

Children, some aged five, commit thousands of child sex offences – Telegraph

Children, some aged five, commit thousands of child sex offences – Telegraph.

It is convenient to associate behaviour to the media. The media is not to blame, there is such a thing as human nature but it is politically incorrect to say that children enjoy sex. There are ratings on films, TV shows and video games.  Certain behaviour is called Adult Behaviour  and the other is Child Behaviour.  When did this attribution start? We are all human beings, we are born with specific genitals.  There are boys, girls and transgendered children. Despite of this ‘insignificant’ fact children are supposed to be asexual, incapable of comprehending anything sexual. Is this supposed to based on accurate scientific findings or things just made up because it made prudish parents comfortable?  There is a link between the legalising of marijuana and the understanding of children’s sexuality.  People are challenging the banning of marijuana because scientists lied and the politicians banned it.
The scientific evidence with respect to young children could also be tampered with for some political agenda.  When adults have sex with children they are labelled pedophiles and their explanations for their actions are not heard that the ones they had sex actually consented to it.
No one chooses to believe them because ‘children cannot possibly have any sexual desire’. Then such things happen and the medias is blamed for this ‘strange’ behaviour or people near the children are responsible.  This is nonsense and everyone knows it. The truth is children do consent to have sex, they know what sex is, it is not some demonic possession, it happens.

US Congressman Rohrabacher demands referendum in Balochistan

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BRUSSELS: In an effort to shed light on the key role Balochistan plays in South Asia, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) convened a conference entitled “Global and Regional Security Challenges in South Asia: What Future for Balochistan”, which took place at The Royal Society, London on 24 February 2013.

Key speaker at this conference, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, gave a poignant speech urging the right to self-determination for the Baloch people.

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This asshole is up to it again. He desperately wants the US invade Pakistan.

Major power breakdown plunges most of country into darkness

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This report is based on information collected by Ahmad Fraz Khan in Lahore, Ikram Junaidi and Syed Irfan Raza in Islamabad and S. Raza Hassan in Karachi

LAHORE / ISLAMABAD: A massive power breakdown plunged major parts of the country into darkness late on Sunday night. From Islamabad to Karachi, most major cities reported power outage.

There was suspension of electricity supply in Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, Quetta, Peshawar and Sukkur and other cities and towns across the country because of a major fault in the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) system.

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A centralised power grid is a strategically most stupid idea of all. It is the country's weakest point. Anyone can destroy it. and the whole country would remain without electricity. Power supply of every single part of the country should be independent of the other so if there is a breakdown or sabotage in any part, will not affect the rest of the country, only the the place where the power pant is located nowhere else.

Pemra cautions media over Valentine's Day

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's media regulator on Wednesday asked television and radio stations to avoid offending religious sentiments and corrupting the nation's youth in their Valentine's Day broadcasts.

While stopping short of an outright ban, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulator Authority (Pemra) circulated a letter saying it was acting on complaints that celebrating the day was not in line with “our religious and cultural ethos”.

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The absence of clean water supply is a problem, the absence of electricity is a problem, bad roads are a problem, crime is a problem. But Valentine's Day certainly not a problem, it is entirely a private matter. The government makes private matters and turns them into a problem. The reason for that is that it has failed to resolve all the real ones.

Perception of God

There is a belief of God or gods and goddesses. There is atheism. There are so many ideas. They have argued with one another.  Nothing I say or convey can be new. Perhaps discussed many times before. Polytheists have attributed different gods and goddesses  with a range of attributes. There is a a god for virtually everything.  When monotheism came across specific attributes. God is good, vengeful. In this belief Satan plays a role, Satan is like an alternative god who tempts people to do evil.  He is a fallen angel. Angels are God’s pious servants. It is convenient to have a God with certain human attributes good and bad,something with which he can be associated to. God is a father. All human attributes.  He is the creator of all that there is. Those believe in Good God cannot understand why He would allow terrible things happen. This makes people increasingly cynical. A vengeful God may provide an explanation. Or that God makes things happen because He simply does not care. A moral God reflects the values The aspect of God is that of the Creator.
As simply being a Creator, He cannot be within what he has made. He would be outside time and space. He is a programmer built things in such a way one find identical patterns everywhere as scientific knowledge grows. We know about stars are objects just like our sun. Many of them have planets orbiting them.  We know about the different shapes of galaxies. We see patterns in life. We know animals have DNA, it has been discovered and been proven to be true. We will discover more patterns as time goes by.
Mathematics has helped predict a phenomenon, that light would bend around an object with a huge mass.
It is the Creator who has made it possible to make everything infinitely knowable. Perhaps some kind machine which is made which travel the entire universe starts knowing everything, understanding everything. Still being omniscient within this creation does not make us God, though it can give the semblance of being a god.Even being omnipotent within the creation that we have is meaningless. Because we are within this reality, confined to this time and space.
People see disasters, earthquakes, floods and see tremendous loss of life. Just imagine in the vast distances of our universe a super-nova occurs, entire planets are wiped out, planets vaporised a terrible holocaust. But that is the way nature works. One day our Sun will die and we will have to start making plans from today to escape the Solar System and plot a course to the youngest stars which has a planet identical to Earth. We can do if we have the knowledge and the technological capacity.
Atheists reject the existence of God outright because there is no evidence of His existence. How can a being who does not exist within the limited dimensions be observed?  Atheists ridicule people who give a simple answer God did it because they imagine that is an unscientific reply. When science progresses beyond our current understanding the end result would be that God did it, God was responsible.
Perhaps in strange kind of probability – God in order to permanently end the cynicism about His existence will manifest Himself. Or decides join humanity like in Joan Ousborne’s  song “What if God was one us”. Experiencing  life as a human being. Perhaps he has many lifetimes  and eventually decides enough is enough and rise in all His glory and show Himself. It could be a world altering event. It would change things forever. Many ideas about God would be revised, altered or thrown aside.Religions would disappear, as will atheism and so would many belief systems. Perhaps some of the prophecies would be proven correct.

 

English: plane of the ecliptic of the Earth's ...

English: plane of the ecliptic of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun in 3d view showing Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter making one full revolution. Saturn and Uranus also appear in their own respective orbits around the Sun http://weelookang.blogspot.com/2011/06/ejs-open-source-kepler-3rd-law-system.html (Photo credit: Wikipedia)