By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

January, 2017

Realities: 2016

 

2016 had its dramatic moments that shaped the world. Conspicuous among them were the terror attacks at airports in Istanbul and Brussels, lorry rampages at Nice and Berlin, and the biggest mass shooting in American history at Orlando.Uniting this violence were the spillover effects of the carnage in Syria and vicinity.
The US invasions of Iraq – and, earlier, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – have roiled much of the world. Now, low-cost, low-tech, high-impact acts are wreaking havoc, with lorries being used as a lethal weapon. Homicidal acts have been simplified, requiring little training or group organization or network. Online hate, with its surfeit of bigotry and fake information, is a constant source of explosive incitement to gullible minds that live and operate in a bubble and are dismissive of contravening perspectives. The Internet is being weaponized in a way it was never intended to be.
The election of Trump – witnessing an upsurge in hate crimes – may mark the slippage of US preeminence. Karl Rove, close aide to George W Bush, in a fit of pharaonic arrogance, had bragged: “We are an empire now and when we act, we create our new realities”, thereby displaying once again that the real danger comes from within and not by missiles from the skies or from across the borders.
2016 realities may not be easily digestible, with Russia smack in the center of the Mideast and calling the shots in Syria. The unfolding calamity in Syria and Iraq drove a migrant exodus on the Mediterranean to Europe.
Witnessed this summer in Turkey was the spontaneous public fury that thwarted a military coup to oust a major NATO country’s leader, President Erdogan. Turkey again was in the firing line when the Russian ambassador there was assassinated in what appeared to be a professional hit job.
Britain’s Brexit vote and American non-presence during the humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo have left a perception of the West in retreat, creating a strategic vacuum. Can there be a pivot from areas and issues that matter?
Another so-called reality is Mr Modi at the helm in New Delhi. His exclusivist caste-ridden Hindutva conception ensures that Indian ambitions of unchallenged regional supremacy remain elusive. The deadly September attack on the Indian Army base in occupied Kashmir at Uri underlines that Kashmir, too, cannot be sidelined through brute force.
Then there is the case of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who recently was seen boasting of his forming a covert alliance with the Arab Establishment against Iran and of Israel breaching the barriers of international isolation (Interview by Lesley Stahl, CBS “60 Minutes”, December 11, 2016). He spoke too soon. On December 23, with the United States abstaining under Obama’s instructions, a landmark UN Security Council resolution was passed, condemning Israeli settlement encroachments on post-1967 occupied Palestinian territories as a “flagrant violation of international law.” Its precedental ramifications pose unexpected obstacles to Israeli expansionism. With the new UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, further hurdles to Israel may lie ahead. It brings the core Palestinian issue back to center stage where it belongs, despite vigorous attempts to derail it.

 

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PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

Actors or Directors

Speaking out

Professional Sycophants

More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight

Rift and Drift

Obama II

Me and We

Small Role or Small Actors?

On Losing

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Loyal to Their Loot

Prevail or Fail

Perceptions and Reality

Toll of Occupation

Re-think, Re-examine, and Self-correct 

The Washington Tribe

Voice and Vision

Moral Slump

Wall of Illusion

Under One Banner

Bitter Harvest

Gallows and the Throne

Scent of Power

At a Standstill

Leaders and Leadership

The Deadline

Fighting Darkness

Distant Connections

Governance: The Long View

Discussion in DC

Darkness in the Mind

Killing Kennedy and Liaquat Ali

Yahya Khan Speaks on 1971

Quaid & Xmas in Washington

150 Years of FC College

Tyranny of Money

50 Years of Ali

A Dose of Truth

Little Guy, Big Impact

A Reassessment in Washington

Crimea & Kashmir

Democracy or Oligarchy?

Afghan Elites: Blaming Pakistan

Pitfalls of Intervention

Arabs in America

Never Give up

German Journey

Tyranny of Today

Manipulating Language

March & Match

Destroyers

Out of Darkness

Modi in America

Awareness or Fairness?

Mideast Maze

Easy Scapegoats

Freedom to Insult

Journey of Recovery

Mental Colonialism

Letters from a Grandfather

Power Imbalance

Discord and Division

Colloquium at Capitol Hill

Washington Lauds Gharib Nawaz

Balkan Lessons

Pivot from the Mideast

American Campus & Mideast Turmoil

Muslim Father; Two Americans

Challenging Fear

Victim Mentality

X & Ali

Fake Democracy?

Irresponsible Passivity

Erosion of Ethics

Dragon of Hate

Extreme in the Mainstream

Ugly Times

Pakistani Summer in England

Speaking Haq

At the Oval

Britain Beware

East in West

Trump Turmoil

Tiny Nation, Towering Figure


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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