OF Bloggers and Journos - Fashion or Profession

AS the social media is booming, we have seen flood of bloggers and "self claimed" journos popping (sometime pooping) up from every corner of Pakistan.There was a time when journalism was considered one of the trustworthy source of acquiring information and knowledge about the current scenarios and to look into it from different perspective. As we saw the evolution of  "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" media and social media, the charm in this field has diminished ,with each one claiming to be a journalist, critic. After years of going through these type of materials here is my analysis on it .

Lets take an example of  The Express Tribune Blog, we have seen a pool of bloggers, most of them claiming to be journalists, critics without even knowing what is the definition of these words. I won't go into bashing each of them individually, but what most of the bloggers and journos are only writing to get fame and criticize just to increase the hits and visit frequency. Here are some of the areas about which they write to gain fame

• Act, Be and Support Feminists
• Favor US
• Favor/Support Drones
• Brag about Malala
• Blame everything on religion
• Atheism is a fashion
• Bash a woman with Hijaab and  Man with a Beard
• Support Homosexuality
• Show that you are the most worried person about minorities
• In the Light of blasphemy laws, bash religion 
• Always Negatively Criticize Pakistan
• Religion is BAD, but SUFISM is a fashion

Above mentioned are some of the areas which these day so called blogger love to brag about in their blogs and articles, just to look "Kool" with a "K" , because they know that this will increase their views and will be loaded with the comments of critics, in the end they will gain "popularity". This has become a fashion, just like calling ownself a "liberal", "secular" has become a fashion, supporting "homosexuality" is now a fashion . Calling any religion intolerant is a fashion. If you speak against drones, you will be marked as "Mullah" or "Extremist" , If you say that Malala is as important as thousand of kids dying in drones you will be labeled as Extremist, Sick, Taliban, Mullah, Fanatic by these so called journalists/bloggers. Every institute with the word "Islamic" in it will be labelled as a terrorist organization by them, even if it is an Islamic Bank. In support of minorities they will write in such a way that will make the whole majority look bad . In the name of blasphemy laws, I agree that they are being misused and there should be amendments, but these writers misuse religion to bash blasphemy laws .

Blogging and Journalism are two different things, but people on social media have forgot this difference, in their view if they can write a blog, then they think that they are social activist, journalist. No Sir/Madam you are not . It has just become a fashion to gain audience and page hits. There is a difference if you are a model walking on a ramp and walking nude on streets, both will gain audience . The same is the case between professional and qualified journalists and wannabe "kool" with a "k", wannabe "socio journos" , wannabe "liberal/secular" bloggers . If you think that writing a blog on crap like ET Blog where every other teenage boy/girl with daddy issues write which is the least concern of people, though sometimes its good, but most of the times they are pretty useless issues, in fact they aren't even issues. They are just eligible to remain in personal blogs not on some newspaper blogs . So if you think by blogging on social media you have become a social activist or journalist then you better look into a mirror. Because you are just into fashion, not writing. It is said that pen is mightier than the sword. True, but a pen with a leak will make your own hands and your work dirty , not more mightier

Identity Crisis - Will the real Pakistani please stand up

Case 1 :

2 years back I was on my way home in a public bus, it was the month of Ramadan, and as we all know that in Ramadan during rush hours people go mad . It was just another evening, I heard 2 people talking on the back seat, discussing the situation of Pakistan after some bad or unpleasant news they heard from someone, the conversation was somewhat like this .

MAN 1 : Pata nahi is mulk main kyun reh rahay hain, bas bhaagna hai yahan se ( Why are we even living in this country, we should leave this place )

MAN 2 (Laughing) : Ab to Green Passport ki bhi koi izzat nahi kerta, kon poochta hai Pakistanio ko (No one respects our Green Passport, and no one on earth gives any kind of respect to us)

MAN 1 : Bas yaar bahar niklo is mulk se ( Bro, we just need to get out of here )

And they carried on with the same old criticism, usually I don't keep quite when someone is blaming Pakistan for their problems, but I don't know what kept me from arguing with them, I controlled my anger and few minutes after I get off as my stop was there .

Case 2 :

Years back when I was studying , I posted a nationalist sort of article on my department's mailing group. After few months I received an email from a senior of mine who belonged to an Islamic organization, claiming that if you are a nationalist then you are against the teachings of Islam, as Islam teaches universal brotherhood beyond borders . Accepting that as a true point, I argued that my post doesn't disagree with this fact, if I love my country that doesn't mean that I am against the Universal Brotherhood teachings, but according to her even fighting for the country is against the teachings of Islam and insisted that I should drop the idea of loving my country in order to be a true Muslim, the point of her was that we need to come under the umbrella of Khilafah . The discussion ended with no conclusion .

Case 3 :

I often get laughed at for my too much of "Pro-Pakistani" posts on social networks, they call me Jazbaati (Emotional) , Pagal, or whatever they could think of, its not that I am wrong , its just that I feel sorry for other people's attitude towards Pakistan, it was one sort of discussion that cleanliness begins from home, so if you want to make Pakistan a better place to live then we have to change ourselves like we should keep our streets clean, we should follow traffic rules, and these are just a tiny bit of responsibilities that fall on each and every citizen of this country. But for my these points I got nothing but the same attitude that "these things wont help Pakistan" only true leaders will help you, and "1 Banday k change honay se kuch nahi hota" ( You can't change Pakistan, by just changing yourself" , we are too rigid to change ourselves ,then how do you expect a change in the whole damn system ?

Case 4:

A colleague of mine while trying to make fun of me told me that "You will look like Quaid-e-Azam when you will grow old, I said " At-least I will look like a Great Man" , this statement led to him claiming that creating Pakistan was a conspiracy to divide Muslims and all the crap and Jinnah wasn't a great man . My response was "Don't get me started on this"

Above mentioned cases are Actual events that happened in my life, and they are just not limited to these 4, they are a lot of them, reason behind sharing was to show that how much of a confused nation we are, we are in deep and critical sort of Identity Crisis, we fight on whether there should be Islamic laws, secular laws, whether Jinnah was secular or religious, was he a Shiite , Ismaili or a Sunni, whether voting in elections is "Shirk" or not, is giving taxes OK or not, were we better in India or Pakistan, whether I should call myself a Pakistani first or a Muslim first, whether or not its my right to kill anyone in the name of honor or religion .

Are WE  REAL Pakistanis, I am sure if our ancestors who laid their precious life for a more precious place called Pakistan were alive they would have regretted their decision to do so, NO NO by no means I am saying that creating Pakistan was a mistake, what I am trying to say is that we have made it a horrible place to live by our actions, by the rules we impose in our society , by misusing religion, by vowing to kill every other person, by make it dirtier with our own hands .

Will the REAL Pakistani please Standup !

Adaab-e-Munafiqat Pakistan - Hypocrisy Protocols in Pakistan

After going through the recent Malala's incident, I decided to blog my thoughts .
I am not a pessimist, neither am an extremist (be it liberal or religious) . I just try not to be a hypocrite in Pakistan . If YOU are a Pakistani, then it is extremely difficult to choose a side, either side you choose, you will be labeled as "extremist", but I will call you a hypocrite (munafiq in urdu ).

By Definition hypocrite means

a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs

Very well, Now lets read the Pakistani  version of it

A person who actually by his words and arguments shows the love for country, but when it comes to prove, act, perform, or stand by the words, fails to do so. In other words don't give a shit about the country

 If you are interested in becoming a hypocrite, or want to know the level of your hypocrisy ,or just for the sake of knowledge, I present you Adaab-e-Munaafiqt , Rules or Protocols of Hypocrisy .

1. Make sure you are a Pakistani, you must carry the Green passport
2. Hypocrisy has two kinds 1.Religious 2.Liberal, choose the best that matches your personality
   Lets talk about No. 2 ,first 
3. Call Jinnah a Secular
4. Iqbal is nothing
5. Baluchistan is not the part of Pakistan, and must be separated
6. Shutup when a Drone Strikes, shout when a Taliban does
7. Shutup on Target Killings
8. Every other pious person is a Taliban
9. Pakistan Army is killing innocent people in Northern Areas, but Drones are killing terrorists
10. Use abusive language frequently, this really helps when you are losing an argument
11. Enemies only exist within, there is no insurgency from India and Iran
12. USA is United States Almighty 
13. Freedom of Speech can be used to abuse religion
14. If you are a  Human Rights Activist, don't you dare mention Kashmir . NEVER 
15. Every conversion to Islam is a forceful one

If I continue to mention the rules this will never end, but for starters these are enough. Lets come to the next set of rules, for our Holy Religious People

1. Make sure that every other person is a Kafir, Say it loud or think it in your heart
2. Every person calling himself a Taliban is a true Mujahid and Warrior 
3. Pakistan was made by a Kafir and it should have never been created but make sure you are the 1st in line to call yourself a Pakistani and want to rule this country
4. Never mention Suicide Attacks in your discussions, they are "Fidai" attacks and those who die are doomed to hell
5. Pak Army is Na-Paak Army
6. Don't forget to misuse blasphemy law
7. USA is our enemy, but let the $$$ come, but we can be friends if they provide us with weapons to fight other non-Muslims
8. Never speak up for minority rights
9. Bash USA even for the issues like load shedding, corruption, inflation etc.
10. Fund every Jihaadi organization without knowing who is controlling it
11. Make sure to find a conspiracy in every event
12. Shariah is the law, but make sure you interpret it your way
13. Never speak up for Women rights, Rape, KaroKari, Vani and all the traditions against women
14. While protesting, destroy all the properties, burn everything, block roads to make sure your Holy Message is heard
15. Breaking Country's Law is OK, because you are a religious person and You are superior to everyone.

I hope these Rules are clear and well written. Try to rate yourself on the scale of 1 to 10 in the light of the categories . 

Feel free to call me whatever you like, I take abuses, rant, gaaliyan, fatwas, and all the verbal shit with an open heart 

A (maybe or maybe not) Hypocrite.