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When Pakistani fashion designer Honey Waqar said she was going to New Delhi to show her work at Bridal Asia 2008, Gillani gave her his full support. “Ms Waqar has been chosen as Pakistan’s fashion ambassador,” said a fax from Gillani’s office.

The letter, signed by the aide-de-camp to the prime minister, goes on to say, “The newly elected democratic government in Pakistan ably led by the PM himself, encourages all women to explore diversified fields in order to not only excel in their individual capacities but also to bring laurels to their country of origin, Pakistan.”

Unsurprisingly, Waqar is thrilled.

“I’ve shown my work in India and abroad many times before. But to actually be sent as a fashion ambassador, that too by the PM himself, is a great honour. It gives me the confidence that fashion is recognised as a strong industry and is taken seriously by this government. India and Pakistan have similar cultures and it’s very heartening to know that our prime minister is keen to bridge the gaps between both nations.”

It may be better if the gap is filled by salwars-kameez creations from Waqar’s repertoire, rather than strong rhetoric from either side on Kashmir and terrorism. At least some of the prime minister’s interest in this new-fashioned diplomacy may be explained by his wife, Fauzia’s work with the fashion industry. According to sources, Mrs Gillani herself was to be the guest of honour at the bridal wear exhibition but had to cancel in order to arrange her son’s October 11 wedding.

Though Waqar is not a career diplomat, there are signs she is learning the language of diplomacy in her new role as fashion envoy. India, she says, feels so like “home” that she never bothers to get her collection of outfits insured when she brings them here. “I use real jewels (pearls, emeralds, diamonds) on my clothes, so I need to have them insured when I take them out of Pakistan. But in India, I do no such thing. I feel at home here,” she says.

The fashion bonhomie will continue with Mehreen Syed, one of the two Pakistani models showing Waqar’s collection in India. Syed has been offered a role in a Bollywood film by Sanjay Chauhan, who wrote the dialogue for Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara.

Courtesy: Times of India

For those of you who have not seen it yet, this is CNN’s video from the Palin – Zardari meeting. Pakistan’s President showing his true leadership in style….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GHWa6jqALE

Maybe the critics were right about our President calling him “a category 5 disaster.”

This is a great piece from the Huffington Post on how the media can make things disappear even though it is public information.

Fog Facts are things that have been made public, but have somehow disappeared into the mist.

Thereby becoming invisible.

Here are some examples: seven of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers have phoned in to say they were alive.

After the US took over Iraq, including the oil for food program, $19 billion of Iraq’s money disappeared. The Florida recount, completed in 2001, showed that Al Gore got more valid, countable votes than George Bush.

What keeps us oblivious to these things is the failure to frame them, the failure of somebody to push them, and sometimes the deliberate manufacture of fog.

In turn, ignorance of the facts, keeps us from seeing the real picture.

A lot what has happened in the last six years is baffling. Let’s focus on one area, our response to the 9/11 attacks.

The fog, in this case, is made of the things the administration has said. The facts are the things that they have actually done. If someone sells you a car and you notice that it eats grass and milk is coming out of the exhaust, it’s pretty good bet it’s a cow.

The War on Terror does not catch terrorists, especially the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, and the people in charge don’t really seem to care. That’s with the expenditure of $200 billion in supplementary spending, over and above the normal cost of maintaining our military and intelligence operations. Read the rest of this entry »

As the domestic Pakistani press starts to fill up with interesting stories, I will be posting articles, editorials and other items that are relevant to the situation in Pakistan today. For this purpose, some new topics have also been added:

Extremism
Pakistani Politics

I hope that you enjoy the new additions and that they are able to give you more insight into Pakistan and what is affecting my home country each day.

There is a great trend in Pakistan where little kids, and I do include immature men in that category, like to call people at odd hours and ask them to “make friendship with them.” In Pakistan, make friendship is to date them. First off, it takes a small man to call someone up and harass them, but then most of Pakistan’s male society is frustrated because of the Mullah code.

Now, since in Pakistan, the only thing that mobile companies will do is warn the person that is making these calls, we have created this Wall of Shame. If you are receiving harassing calls or SMSs, please post them on Take Back Pakistan so that we can approach the relevant authorities for the permanent blocking of the number. Even if the number doesn’t get blocked, this will create a registry of stupid callers that can be referenced to PTA and the mobile companies, since they don’t believe that their connections could be used in this way.

If you are receiving harassing calls or SMSs from any of the mobile companies subscribers, feel free to list their cell number, what they said to you and the time of the call. We will push the mobile companies and PTA to take notice and action once and for all to rid our society of this trash.

I have already started the list there and will add to it as I get more numbers passed to me.

Everyone wants to achieve great success in their professional and personal life. But while we are climbing the ladder to success, we see some failures, which can either end our dream or inspire us even more to achieve it. I thought that maybe we should visit history and see how many times and people have been visited by failure; more importantly, how they moved forward from their failures and where they ended up.

After Fred Astaire‘s first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, said, “Can’t act! Slightly Bald! Can dance a little!” Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.

An expert said of Vince Lombardi, “He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks Motivation.”

Socrates was called, “An immoral corrupter of youth.”

Read the rest of this entry »