Failed States Index 2008
Foreign Policy Magazine has released their new “Failed States Index for 2008” ranking countries based on specific criteria. Pakistan has placed 9th.
What is interesting to me are the graphs that have been included to support the fact. For example, the powers of Parliament in a failed state: Read more…
Sphere: Related ContentSecret Orders to Allow US Raids Into Any Country
We are posting this for a few reasons. First, because every news outlet in Pakistan is reporting the story of a “Secret US Order” that allowed military raids into Pakistan. Second, former President Musharraf’s stand that neither he, nor anyone in his government, approved these raids. Third, the current government’s regular complaints to the US over the ever increasing drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan going unheard.
The NY Times story, re-produced below, gives the world the details of a 2004 confidential order signed by Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush. According to the news story, this order gave the US military open orders to enter and operate within any country where the US felt al-Qaeda was hiding, including Pakistan and Syria.
And the American’s wonder why there is so much anti-Americanism in the world today…. I guess when you categorically decided to attack anywhere in the world, kill innocent civilians and destroy people’s homes, people should welcome you with parades and guards of honor… I guess that only happens in Pakistan….
Additionally, this should make us very suspicious of any of the IMF conditions, especially the demand to decrease our military forces by 1/3 and re-vamp, shut down in US terms, our Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). These terms were never acceptable in the past and should not be considered as part of any IMF support package.
Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON – The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.
These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.
In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants’ compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission – captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft – in real time in the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away.
Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the C.I.A., according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on Oct. 26 of this year, the military commandos acted in support of C.I.A.-directed operations.
But as many as a dozen additional operations have been canceled in the past four years, often to the dismay of military commanders, senior military officials said. They said senior administration officials had decided in these cases that the missions were too risky, were too diplomatically explosive or relied on insufficient evidence.
More than a half-dozen officials, including current and former military and intelligence officials as well as senior Bush administration policy makers, described details of the 2004 military order on the condition of anonymity because of its politically delicate nature. Spokesmen for the White House, the Defense Department and the military declined to comment. Read more…
Sphere: Related ContentPakistan Have Your Say – Do We Need Noise Pollution Ordinances?
I’m sure that everyone reading this blog has had it happen to you….. the night that you need to sleep for a big test or interview, or maybe you have someone seriously ill in your home, or maybe you would just like a night of peace and quiet at home with friends and family. But just as we settle in to study, getting a patient to sleep or settling into a good movie, the casual privacy that we have in our homes is disturbed by a loud music from a nearby wedding hall. Don’t get me wrong, I think everyone has the right to celebrate, but do you really have to disturb my peace to do so?
Most nations, including our neighboring India, cities have ordinances to assure that noise pollution is controlled.
So let’s start with the basics, to understand what noise pollution is, we first have to understand noise.
Noise is any sound which annoys, intrudes or disturbs. It is best described as a “sound which is undesired by the recipient.” You could be listening to your favorite CD at a loud volume, but if your neighbor can hear it, it is considered noise because it intrudes their home and causes annoyance.
Noise pollution issues fall into multiple categories:
- Residential – stereos, noisy parties, wedding halls, house/vehicle alarms
- Industrial/Commercial – Factory, construction site or noisy business
- Transportation – Road/Rail, car horns
So how do we decide if its noise pollution?
Deciding if environmental noise is noise pollution or not is the most difficult. When deciding if it’s noise pollution or not, it must meet a basic criteria:
Is this sort of noise wholly unreasonable in the circumstances?
- If the noise is enough to keep you awake at night, its unacceptable.
- If it is occasional, at a reasonable time of day or can only just be heard, this would not be noise pollution.
What is a Noise Pollution Ordinance?
Noise Pollution Ordinances fall under the jurisdiction of the city/district council. They are meant to protect citizens from any noise nuisance coming from vehicles, machinery, street equipment, and loud parties. They also set the fines and punishments for repeat offenses. To give you an example, a town in the United Kingdom fines first time offenders GBP 2000.
Now, we all know that we can’t get people to turn down their stereos when they drive down the road, but we could have
- “Silence Zones” around educational institutions, hospitals and courts, where horn blowing, loud parties, etc. would not be allowed at all
- Ban on playing music outdoors at wedding halls after 11 pm
- Require all vehicles, including rickshaws, to have mufflers
How Does it Help Us? Read more…
Sphere: Related ContentA Standard for Leadership
Jamie Lee Curtis, in a thank you letter to Barack Obama, sets a fantastic standard for what leaders should be, using the words of Rudyard Kipling’s If:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; Read more…