The cell-phone video of three “brave” strong males holding down and ravaging a young northern-area woman (who may be Pakistani or Afghani) with a public flogging was shameful by any standards of decency, morality or humanity.
Even more shameful was the timing of the video’s release. It was apparently leaked not to call attention to a serious crime, and dozens of atrocities like it that are committed by spineless, dishonorable, Taliban every day, but to complicate Pakistan’s nearly complete peace deal in Swat.
The Internet communities like Twitter are, for lack of a better word, atwitter (!) with this particular video being used as an example of what must be happening to every woman in every part of Pakistan.
Don’t get me wrong. The scourge of the Taliban, the cancer of AlQaeda and the repulsive puss-filled sore of Pakistani-killing terrorists brazenly attacking people in Pakistan are serious threats to every Muslim, every Pakistani. But they are, in many cases, byproducts of other fundamental problems that need to be solved by Pakistan and Muslims.
For example, a history of letting some parts of Pakistan being somewhat exempt from the laws of modern Pakistan may have seemed like ceding power and control to local warlords and ancient tribal traditions. But, in many cases, there were also arrangements in place that suited older governments of Pakistan.
They found it easier to buy the peace with a warlord or Maliks or Emirs of the region, even at the cost of not giving the local populace there a vote or a voice in its own destiny.
Even the money given to areas where natural resources were found, and consumed nationwide, the “royalties” did not go to benefit the people of the area, but to enrich the tribal leaders, who became even stronger and more vile forces, somewhat like Stone Age Godfathers even without the semblance of a competition or law above them.
They ensured that murder, rape and other heinous crimes remained their tools of administering their subservient population. Ensuring lack of education, lack of basic facilities, even medical care for the poor was another way to keep a population barely surviving and not daring to speak up, or even knowing that speaking up was an option.
That is why, though I went to school with many scions of such “wadera” or “tribal chief” families sons, I did not shed a tear when a certain Nawab, who was as much an enemy of Pakistan as of his own people, was wiped out by General Musharaff (in one of the few good things he did as Chief Dictator Officer in Pakistan).
My hope was that many of the tribal leaders’ kids going to school with me at Aitchison College, Lahore in Pakistan, would one day go and become the new chiefs of their tribes and maybe change things.
I guess power, especially generations old almost godlike power, has its own power to corrupt. Many of my friends went on to have professional careers but I did not see or hear of any of them being the power of change I had hoped they would.
Thus, it is easy to see why the international media, the global community, including God-fearing, law-abiding, everyday Pakistanis, being horrified and angry at the crimes being committed by the sewer rat Taliban fanatics. It is easy to see why decent people around the world, especially on the Internet, would distribute the story to everyone who would hear.
But what gets my riled up is the way the tragic story is used not to influence positive change or to discuss the reasons such groups exist. There is no talk of the role of the United States in creating yesterday’s mujahideen (today’s Taliban).
Ignored is the double standard of Washington in making speeches about democracy but always secretly praying for, and playing for, a powerful but controllable dictator in Muslim countries.
The worst examples include the repulsive and thankfully long dead General Zia and moderately pleasant but still Constitution-raping General Musharaff in Pakistan or the Arab thug Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.
The most disgusting to me personally is the concept of all American administrations supporting a monarchy in Saudi Arabia, where Islam brought the earliest concept of people deciding who would rule them after the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) passed away.
During this time, the fact is that online communities like Twitter have a flood of messages screaming that the sky is falling in Pakistan. They are crying hoarse about how Pakistan is on the verge of a breakdown.
They are maligning Pakistan as if every young or old woman in Pakistan is beaten at the smallest excuse and the rest of the country applauds. They feel Pakistan is a threat to its neighbors.
If you ask a loaded question, “Which Country Is A Danger To Its Neighbors, Is Unstable And On The Verge Of Breakdown, And Is Terrible To Women?” I am sure Pakistan is what most of them would quickly jump to answer.
The triple irony is that just today’s news shows three of America’s stalwart, and supposedly stable, allies are the worst examples of what Pakistan is accused of being.
The vile Zionist state of nuclear-armed Israel continues to show it has no desire for peace, with its own Foreign Minister blowing off agreements they had made with the American governments in recent years for a two-state solution to the Occupation of Palestine. They treat their Palestinian occupied territory slaves, men and women, worse than the worst Pakistani tribal crook chieftain treats his subjugated poor serfs. And they have an unstable coalition government increasingly run by right-wing fanatics.
Saudi Arabia, where the thankfully gone George W. Bush could not get enough of kissing, and lip-synching policies with the equally hypocritical and un-Islamic Saudi monarch, (and where President Barack Hussein Obama was also bowing in deference) is in the news. How they mistreat women and have no civil rights for migrant workers is not even news.
The latest repulsive news from Saudi Arabia was that a man gave his 8-year old daughter to be married to a 47-year old man to settle a debt. I repeat, to settle a DEBT. In the year 2009 AD the Arab Muslims are literally selling daughters to settle business debts. I wonder whom they would sell to settle a mortgage loan.
Lastly, the mother of all daughter-selling countries, Thailand, a favorite destination for child-porn seekers and pedophiles from Europe and America, not only continues to peddle its wares, and its daughters, it is also now in a state of emergency, in addition to political unrest in various regions around it.
Let’s be fair. All these nations also have insurgencies of one kind or another. It is time that America sends in the drones. But this time let’s send them to bomb civilian areas in Tel Aviv, Jeddah and Bangkok and deal with the far worse crimes against humanity committed by those three American allies every day.
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Imran Anwar is a New York and Miami based Pakistani-American entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, inventor, writer and TV personality. He can be reached through his web site http://imran.com and imran@imran.com . You can respond to his live comments on Twitter at http://twitter.com/imrananwar
This has been another week in which Pakistan has been in the news in America. Pakistan has embarked on a major new path when its people once again stood up for democracy. But that news has not been reported very much in American media. It is almost as if some American media were disappointed that, for a change, the news from Pakistan was good.
You would think that these media would have preferred if Pakistan had a “Long March” which turned to total chaos and anarchy. It would have given some American media and many so-called analysts the opportunity to say, “I told you so.” For them it would have been more newsworthy to report “Pakistan near collapse” than the “boring” news that “Pakistanis Face & Reverse Tyranny.”
I wonder if it is because most American media, despite their protestations and editorial comments when Pakistan does not have democracy, in their heart of hearts know that American interests abroad are best served by keeping dictators in power.
After all, that is the one thing American governments, be they Republican or Democrat, have always been consistent on. They have always supported dictators in Pakistan. Of course, that is the same reason they use to curtail aid to Pakistan, but always seem to open their wallets when a dictator in Pakistan plays hardball with them.
It would be foolish and irresponsible for us to believe that everything is hunky-dory in Pakistan. Pakistan managed to step back from the precipice of a total meltdown after the Long March. President Asif Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finally agreed on a mechanism for the restoration of the Chief Justice of Pakistan. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chowdhry has taken his office again. But Pakistan is not out of the woods.
The terrorists who carried out the attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team are still brazenly moving about the city of Lahore, posing unknown threats to Pakistanis. The Taliban and their evil supporters have stooped to new lows.
Even the repulsive Zionist army of Israel, invading and slaughtering Palestinians and the Lebanese, or the indiscriminate bombings of American jets in Afghanistan and Iraq, have never been known to specifically directly target a mosque full of worshippers. Yet that is what the scum of the universe, the suicide bombers in Pakistan and Afghanistan, are doing.
How are their actions serving Islam? How they are helping liberate Palestine or Kashmir – by killing 100 Muslims in a mosque during prayers? They are not.
It is all about sowing terror, not spreading Islam. It is all about bloodlust, not about freedom. It is all about evil, not about iman. Yet the silence of leading politicians from religious parties, ulema, imams and other “thaikedars” of Islam is deafening.
The same people who jump on every opportunity to have a press conference, or send out a press release, about deaths happening in Palestine or Iraq seem to have nothing to say on this biggest evil of suicide bombers right in our own home, killing our fellow Pakistani Muslims on an almost daily basis.
Some apologists for these professional so-called “defenders of Islam” try to make excuses for them. They tell me that they did indeed, maybe some time in the past, say something or the other condemning terrorism.
My question is, isn’t the slaughter of Pakistani and Muslim worshippers in a mosque a far more evil deed that is being carried out right under our noses? Why is there not a daily fatwa against suicide bombers? Why are we not declaring every day (even by name of the suicide bomber of the day) that they will be burning in the deepest recesses of hell?
What Pakistanis, and Afghans, do not seem to still realize is that their silence is acquiescence. By not uniting and using every available tool to eradicate the scourge of suicide bombing terrorists from within Pakistan and Afghanistan, both these countries are inviting more and more trouble from abroad.
President Barack Hussein Obama has recently released more information about his plans for Afghanistan and, more ominously, Pakistan. The good news is that an American president at least understands the challenges that are faced by America and the West in that region. The bad news is that an American president understands the challenges that are faced by America and the West in that region. What do I mean by that?
What it means is that Obama is winding down on the war in Iraq. He and his advisers realize that while time, energy and money were being wasted in Iraq, thanks to the foolish and idiotic warmongering policies of George W. Bush, the real threat of Al Qaeda was actually growing.
During this time, because of Bush simply outsourcing the hunt for Bin Laden to General Musharraf, the only thing that was achieved was greater hatred for America among the very people of Pakistan and Afghanistan who could have helped eradicate Al Qaeda.
This is a make or break opportunity for Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan. We now have an American president who is actively working to undo the damage done by George W. Bush around the world. He is diligently working to withdraw troops from Iraq. He has already ordered an increase in aid to Pakistan.
He has more than once mentioned that the main conflict between Pakistan and India is Kashmir and that America needs to help solve that problem.
On more than one occasion, in recent speeches, he has directly spoken words addressed to the Muslim population of the world. He has even done the unthinkable for an American president; speaking words addressed directly to America’s original arch nemesis in the Muslim world, Iran and its clerics.
Let’s remember that this man is still President of the biggest military power on the planet. America still is the only remaining superpower. He is not speaking from a position of weakness. He is not speaking to win any elections in America.
Obama’s outreach attempts to befriend Muslims have even been criticized by his opponents at home. Many of them think that reaching out to the Muslim world is caving in to terror.
Think about it, dear reader. We Muslims, with our silence, have allowed things to get so bad that the typical, not highly educated, not very politically aware, citizen of most western countries equates our religion of peace with blood lust and terror.
If we do not speak up, unite and eradicate the evil growing amongst us, it will kill more and more of our fellow Muslims and Pakistanis. It will continue to malign our religion Islam and threaten the very existence of our beloved countries.
Do you still want to remain silent? Speak up now or one day God will ask you about it.
=== Imran Anwar is a New York and Miami based Pakistani-American entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, inventor, writer and TV personality. He can be reached through his web site http://imran.com and imran@imran.com . You can converse with him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/imrananwar
This has been quite an eventful week in New York. The previous few weeks of economic decline, bad financial news, increasing unemployment numbers and other news of global distress had been pushing the New York Stock Exchange consistently and constantly lower and lower.
Things were so bad that people would have preferred a return of the stress-filled yo-yo stock market days, where one at least had a 50-50 chance of making or losing money!
From a high of almost 13,000 the NYSE reached 6500 and there was talk of it even heading lower. There were fears that it might even fall below 6000 before all is said and done.
This decline continued while the flood of bad news also continued unabated. The only silver lining one could see around these ominous dark clouds was that most companies were choosing to do greater layoffs than they need and reducing costs as much as they can.
Even though each job lost is something that can mean the destruction of dreams of a family, sadly, for big businesses it is all a numbers game. Companies generally prefer to dish out all their bad news in one lump rather than dish it out piecemeal. It is generally easier to recover from a massive jolt and negative dip in stock prices over a few weeks or months. It is harder to get over the malaise that can cripple a company’s stock price if the bad news, no matter how small, just keeps coming every few weeks.
What’s that suggests to me, and keep in mind that I’m no financial adviser, is that most companies may be gearing up to have better than expected results at the end of the March quarter. Or, at least results that are less terrible than the market anticipates. Either one of these could potentially mean a rise in stock prices in April.
Even before the end of the quarter, a few pieces of good news have come out. One of them was that Citibank has been profitable for the last two months. This is the giant global behemoth that is one of those banks considered too large to be allowed to fail. This news came shortly after the bank’s stock was trading at as low as one Dollar per share, a far cry from nearly $60 per share it used to be.
Anybody who bought those shares at the ridiculously low price of one Dollar literally made a profit of 35% in one day, as investors suddenly found their greed outweighing their fear.
Financial company stocks in general benefited from this uptick in the stock market. Most major stocks have been rising consistently for the last few days, though I expect some drops as profit-taking starts again.
Even though it is far too early to claim that the market will not plumb new lows, but more than likely, one year from now economists and other so-called experts will analyse and say that the recovery had begun at an anaemic but measurable rate in these weeks.
President Barack Obama and his team have had most of their focus on the American economy – as well as the global recession that still imperils the world. But in the meantime other serious matters of the world continue to demand attention.
As is consistent with Pakistan and its self-destructive ways, once again American media and Pakistan bashers have gotten ample opportunity to raise the specter of Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists – should the country spill further into anarchy.
The recent blatant and brazen terrorist attacks in the metropolitan city of Lahore, the despicable attempts to kill the Sri Lankan Cricket team and the evil murder of police officers and innocent bystanders there showed how almost no part of Pakistan is safe. This was an attack obviously not carried out by Taleban type thugs but by some well-organised but equally evil professionally trained gang of killers.
The Taleban continue to remain in the news, especially Pakistan ceding control of Swat and other regions to what are perceived as extremist groups. American drone and missile strikes continue to kill Pakistanis, innocent or otherwise, with disturbing regularity. India continues to rattle its sabers in the guise of demanding justice for the Mumbai attacks. In other words, there is no possible threat, internal or external, military, economic, political or social that Pakistan does not face.
Yet our shameless, spineless, gutless, clueless and witless politicians continue to fight over who sits at the head of the table – while this ship of state is rapidly sinking. Unlike even the Titanic, Pakistan is like a ship whose captain has been aiming it at every single iceberg he can see. On top of that, the ship has been torpedoed from behind. Its own crew is setting fire to cabins and furniture while others are busy looting what they can.
It is no wonder therefore that foreign powers, including America, find that the only way to control Pakistan, even to keep it from self-destructing, is to manage it not as friends but as masters. And, Pakistani politicians are quite OK with that.
From politicians, I want to shift to lawyers. Every country in the world has its share of lawyer jokes. For the last one year, and once again this month, it happens to be Pakistan’s lawyers and barristers, who have taken up the challenge to restore democracy and justice.
A profession that relies not on regular salaries but on almost daily work in the courthouse has once again stepped up, at great cost to its self, economically, professionally, personally. Today I must salute the lawyers and other professionals of Pakistan, not just for bringing down one dictator, but for ensuring that Pakistanis as a nation see that they can choose and control what the government can or cannot do when an elected person tries to act as a dictator.
Will democracy rule or will Pakistan sink into the abyss of chaos and anarchy?
The fact that things have come to this stage in itself is a tragedy. For the first time in more than 60 years we had an opportunity to establish state institutions. This was a historic opportunity because so many forces lined up in a once in a century series of events. The sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto, the professionalism of General Kayani, the sensibility of some political leaders and the great courage of Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry and fellow judges. Rarely had so many forces lined up to restore true democracy to Pakistan. And, sadly, rarely have historic opportunities of such greatness been grasped in Pakistan.
As I am writing these lines in New York – on this 13th of March – I am hoping for some good luck for Pakistan. The only positive news is that some sort of compromise may be in the works in Islamabad. I, like millions of Pakistanis, can only hope and pray for that miracle and some Good Luck, today, on Friday The 13th.
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This article was in client publications on Friday the 13th, 2009.
Imran Anwar is a New York based Pakistani-American entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, inventor, writer and TV personality. He can be reached through his web site http://imran.com and imran@imran.com . You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/imrananwar
From The Slums Of Bollywood To The Red Carpet Of Hollywood
By Imran Anwar
(New York) It was nearly 30 years ago that my first writings were published in a major Pakistani newspaper, the once defunct and then reborn Pakistan Times. The writings continued during my time with the Jang group, in particular MAG Weekly, in the late 1980s, until I left for the United States.
All during that time, despite all my criticisms of whoever was in power at that time in Pakistan, my writings were always full of hope, desire and confidence of a great future that Pakistan had ahead of it. I also often wondered about why people older than me, some who had also travelled abroad, were far more cynical and much less hopeful.
All through that time I had always been the staunchest supporter and the defender of the name of Pakistan, whether it be in writing letters to the editors of foreign journals and newspapers critical of Pakistan or trying to convince foreign diplomats and journalists, as well as Western citizens, about how great Pakistan was going to be.
One of the important yardsticks, which would perhaps now be called a Meter stick under the metric system, was how we were doing in comparison to India. I distinctly recall how Pakistan had always been a pro-western, America-allied, fairly liberal, capitalism driven society.
India, on the other hand, was a country we competed with on the field of sports, the battlefield, as well as for international influence. We used to laugh at the ugly, dinky little cars that the Indians made, instead of importing the fancy ones we were driving in Pakistan.
Yet in the last 20 years that I have lived in America, India has made amazing, impressive and steady marching progress towards becoming a major global player – in almost every industry in the world. Pakistan during that same time seems to have sprinted downhill – faster than any Olympic athlete could.
It should have been a matter of concern for us when India, the long staunch Soviet and Communist ally, became a major trading partner of the United States, a country on which we had long relied, and whose foreign policies we had often followed. India developed a pool of engineering and other professionals, providing services, engineering, talent and operational capabilities to the world’s largest companies.
In doing so they earned billions and billions of dollars for their country. During this time, we in Pakistan saw the decline of the educational system, the breakdown of institutions, if any existed, and simply the beginning of the end of what might have been a great future.
It was a matter of personal disappointment, almost shame, for me that the day that India launched its first astronaut into space was also the same day that Pakistan went to the International Monetary Fund to beg for survival money. Shame.
During the same time that we were making a name for ourselves, for kidnapping and beheading visitors to our country, India launched, and continues to run, one of the most impressive media campaigns to promote tourism in its country.
Titled “Incredible India!” this campaign appears in major newspapers, magazines and many other places. It simply takes almost exactly the same kind of tourism places and situations that Pakistan could offer visitors but turns it into a must-visit, mystique-filled, once-in-a-lifetime, cultural experience image.
During this time despite the proliferation of private TV channels in Pakistan, another field where the Indians have done an amazing job has been their film industry. They have leveraged it not just in making a name for themselves, but marketing their country and becoming a source of talent abroad. In addition, in exchange, they are bringing even more visitors and foreign exchange to their country,
First their hottest movie stars started appearing in Hollywood films. Then, despite many Indian movies being barely concealed copies of Hollywood scripts, India was able to convince Hollywood to make many Indian-themed movies.
Then they tied their greater and greater visibility in Hollywood, ever improving quality of Bollywood films – which were getting screened in America. They then mixed in marketing of India and its culture and cemented it with the welcoming of American tourists and filmmakers. This was an amazing recipe to lead India to one of its greatest global public relations successes just a few minutes ago.
The Academy Awards ceremony has just concluded in Hollywood, California. As this publication is going to press, the whole world (including a television audience of probably 1 billion people, along with the many millions more who will read newspapers and see photographs online) has seen India emerging as a triumphant victor on yet another field. This time it’ the red carpet of Hollywood and the Oscars ceremony.
Even a movie called Slumdog Millionaire, set against the backdrop of the intense poverty that can be found in India, has turned into a global publicity and financial victory for India, its culture, its movie industry, its tourism and its economy.
And this is not just about showbiz or something that has no global or historic significance. India’s clout, its visibility, its popularity and its new-found confidence – even from something as simple as a movie award – is manifesting itself in its ability to dictate to the world.
India can now even dictate what President Barack Hussein Obama’s team can or will discuss with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan – who are now in Washington DC.
India not only did not attend the meeting, it made clear to the American government that Kashmir is not to be discussed. The American administration agreed to that. In the meantime the same American Administration has expanded the missile strikes it will carry out within Pakistan – while Pakistan’s shameless politicians are merely fighting over dissolving assemblies and not even worried about justice, the one promise that people had asked to be fulfilled, from Karachi to Swat.
The early copies of tomorrow’s New York Times show the exactly opposite paths that two countries born on the same day in history have taken.
The Indian movie industry’s massive triumph on the Hollywood red carpet is one headline related to India. On the same page, the news item related to Pakistan is about a secret United States unit now in Pakistan to train its commandos to battle AlQaeda and the Taliban.
While American companies, and even individual creative types, are literally discussing over cocktails this very minute the next project they want to do in India, the few people discussing Pakistan are wondering if Pakistan will even survive as a nation.
I wonder if I will be around in 20 years to write a similar analysis. And I wonder where in history, geography and world affairs Pakistan will stand on that day. What do you think?
– Imran Anwar is a New York based Pakistani-American entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, inventor, writer and TV personality. He can be reached through his web site http://imran.com and imran@imran.com . You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/imrananwar
The fact is that the American and the global economy are in a severe recession. The biggest problem is a crisis of confidence. Uncertainty is always known to be the enemy of confidence. I am reminded of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle that we were taught in our electrical engineering studies, at the University of Engineering and Technology at Lahore 25 years ago.
The problem with the uncertainty today is that no one seems to know what they are uncertain about. Almost everyone agrees that the economy will eventually recover. Most people can also see the signs, not just here in America, but also abroad. These show some economic activity has begun to take place.
Some of the positive news that has come out in the American media recently has been a decline in the number of homes going into foreclosure. This has come at the same time as higher retail sales figures for the month of January. Of course these numbers may look higher compared to the very dismal sales figures of December 2008. Regardless, it is a positive sign.
However, it seems that at every stage, and at every piece of news, the stock market reacts adversely. My personal suspicion is that most large investors, including players in the stock market, and other influential figures may also be playing an active but insidious role in ensuring volatility in the stock market.
Mind you, I have no actual proof of this. It is merely a hunch. My suspicion is that these people play the stock market not just for regular profit but for nefarious purposes.
The volatility is actually not random but manipulated by certain key investor groups. It is their way of ensuring that people in government, the media as well as the public at large remain uncertain, as well as demanding of a bigger and bigger stimulus package, that is likely to benefit fewer and fewer people.
In other words, the more volatility they show in the market, the more they can get people to panic. The more that happens, or the more things appear uncertain, the greater the likelihood of being able to force the government to spend billions of dollars more, mostly on pork barrel spending or bailouts of crooked bankers.
There are several other positive signs. The price of oil continues to remain low. President Baraka Hussein Obama, with the support of his Democratic majority in Congress, has succeeded in passing a massive stimulus package. This stimulus package as it is called is nearly $800 billion worth of mostly government spending.
This package has come on top of nearly $2 trillion being pumped into American banks. In other words almost $3 trillion is getting spent on restarting the American economy. But is it going to be enough? That is the massive historical question.
My personal feeling is still ambivalence towards these amounts being spent.
I am highly opposed to the massive money poured into banks that did not lend money to consumers. Some of these shameless perpetrators of corporate malfeasance, and gross negligence and incompetence, went on to give themselves billions of dollars in bonuses. One yearns for the days of public hanging of vile characters like that.
Similarly, the money being spent on big government projects are not the answer for short-term solutions that we need to jumpstart the economy really quickly. For example, many projects will take months, if not years, to actually get rolling. Many approval processes and similar formalities will insure other delays. That means any hiring or new jobs that come from these projects may take years to come into the economy.
As a matter of fact, if the economy recovers on its own, especially with the private sector leading the way, it is even possible that by the time these government projects come online most of the capable talent will already be in private service. That means either less experienced or less capable people will end up running those projects. That increases the likelihood of failure and wasted money.
For months I have been proposing an alternate economic recovery plan. My proposal was based not on spending $3 trillion but one trillion.
My proposal is very simple. I suggest that the government set aside $1 trillion and create a state run bank. This bank would issue a short-term limited use credit card. On average the $1 trillion would be given out as a $10,000 credit card to 100 million American households. The range of credit available on these cards would be $5000-$25,000 (hence the average of about $10,000 per household).
The credit cards would be issued with a very simple set of rules. They would only be given to people who are legal residents, or citizens, and who had paid taxes in the last three years. They would not have filed bankruptcy during that period. People would have between 30 and 90 days to use up the entire limit on their credit card. That means “use it or lose it” would be the rule.
This would ensure that one trillion American dollars would jump right back into the economy within 30-90 days. People would be allowed to buy anything legal at any American merchant who accepts these credit cards. These credit cards could even be used to buy an American automobile, if people wanted to. That way American consumers money would be going to American automakers to help them recover – but without it being a no strings attached bailout, as was previously being asked for.
This credit card would not be a giveaway. The entire money borrowed by the consumers would have to be repaid in full, with interest, to the government. However, instead of 15-25% interest rates that most banks charge on credit cards, if they were even issuing new credit, people would be able to pay in this credit card loan back to the government at a nominal interest rate of about 5%.
Even at this 5% rate consumers would be saving a ton of money in interest payments. At the same time even the government would be making a lot more money in interest income than it has been getting from literally giving away taxpayer money to banks at nearly 0%.
Instead of the government trying to set up the infrastructure for doing this, I would have MasterCard, Visa and American Express compete for the business of merchant processing. The condition would be that they would not charge the typical 3-5% transaction fee to merchants but 0.5%
In exchange merchants would have to pass that in savings to consumers. It would still be a win-win-win for everybody.
The credit card companies would still get to process hundreds of millions of new transactions – without having to do any marketing. Merchants would be ensured of immediate new cash coming in through these transactions – without additional cost. Consumers would benefit from the lower costs being passed on to them – without having to wait for expensive credit lines from sleazy banks.
People would have the choice of paying this credit card in monthly statement payments, just like any other credit card. In addition they could also make payments to this credit card loan by adding some of the amount due to the annual taxes that they pay.
Within five years most of the money will be recovered in full, with interest. $1 trillion will immediately go into the US economy to jumpstart it. Many consumers will be able to buy things that they are unable to afford for lack of credit right now. Thousands of merchants will be able to stay in business with the influx of cash. States will benefit from sales tax revenues starting up again. Manufacturers will be able to keep factories running and people employed. Above all, the solution benefits every American, at every level of education and economic strata, not just a few.
I believe my $1 trillion answer is the solution to the $3 trillion question. What do you think?
Are things looking bad in this economy? Who’s bailing you out? Could you use $25,000 right about now?
Here is a working plan that will save us and the US.
Financial deregulation started under the Clinton era and, through the terrible mismanagement under George W. Bush, the economy melted. Now TRILLIONS of Dollars were given away by Bush to bailout industries that put you, me and our entire economy at risk. Even failing carmakers are getting Billions. Are you getting a dime?
Obama has good ideas but they are not enough to do anything for you, for us, for the US in the immediate situation. We need help NOW.
Here is the IMRAN Economic Recovery Plan.
It provides a specific way to trigger an economic recovery within 90 days. Ninety Days, not 9 months or 9 years.
Imran Anwar ( http://imran.com/media/blog/ ) explains the plan and the specifics on how it would work. Using a simple example with numbers, he shows how much money you would get, how you can spend it to stabilize your situation and help the economy. Finally, he explains how the government gets the money back – so we are not all paying trillions in higher taxes for money that makes bankers and other failed executives even richer at our expense while we lose homes, jobs, cars and our future.
This plan ensures legal American residents, citizens and taxpayers are bailed out. They can spend money on American businesses, so more Americans can be hired and the American government can get tax revenues again to ensure a stronger future for AMERICANS.
Would $25,000 to $30,000 help you today? If you want to get help, do something. Take action. It’s easy.
Please tell everyone you know about this ERP (Economic Recovery Plan).
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If you don’t take action, no one will bail you out but you will be paying for years for money given away to bankers, oil companies, automakers and other sleazy businesses. It’s your choice. Watch now and please rate it positively so others can hear the idea and support it. Help Us Help US!
In the previous column we were analyzing how the Republican Party and defeated politicians play the blame the media game. Even though President-elect Barack Obama has won the election, there are many months before he can even more into the White House. He is busy putting together his team and trying to arrange for a smooth transition from the current administration.
We are looking forward to seeing capable, strong, respected, intelligent and competent people to get lots of Cabinet and administrative positions. In other words, we are expecting from the Obama administration what we did not have in the Bush administration!
In the meantime, lame duck president George W. Bush cannot seem to wipe the glee of his face in that his disastrous presidency is coming to an end. He still does not seem to understand the serious damage he has done to America, Americans, the world and America’s standing in the world. He is just acting as if a juvenile, who had been given the responsibility for managing a dorm for a few weeks, is glad that he can go back to partying and having a good time. Texas ranch, here I come!
His team of incompetent, and sometimes corrupt, officials continues to wreak havoc on the nation and the global economy. Secretary Hank Paulson in particular has been spectacular in his inability, apparent poor judgment and lack of good decision-making. It seems that every time he opens his mouth the stock market will drop 200-500 points. Call that the financial equivalent of Hurricane Katrina, another Bush disaster legacy of rewarding failure and incompetence.
As I have written before, the world faces grave financial crises, which need both liquidity and a return of credit and consumer confidence. Paulson does not seem to know how to provide either one. First he disagreed with the good decisions that were being made by other central bankers around the world. Then he agreed with them and said he would follow them.
Then he announced that the government would use the bailout money from taxpayers to buy bad assets, or bad loans, from banks and financial institutions. In effect, he proposed rewarding poorly managed companies run by greedy and crooked executives, while saddling the taxpayer and the American economy with trillions of dollars in liabilities.
When the market had finally adjusted to this, dumb as it was, idea – he roiled the markets again. He did this, in effect, by saying, oops, that’s not what he was planning to do. He then proposed finding some new way to give the money not to the financial institutions that are melting, and could sink the entire global economy with them, but consumers who have high credit card debt.
As was to be expected, the bank stocks that were starting to stabilize took a massive new beating. The entire stock market dropped precipitously again. Thanks, Hank.
An interesting news item related to this financial crisis is that opinionated, big mouth, gold and daring movie producer Michael Moore (who had done great exposes on Bush, 9/11, the war on terror, the US auto industry, US health-care, etc.) has announced that he will be making another movie.
This time he will follow up to his previous successes with a movie exposing the games and players that made up the current financial mess. Hopefully, he will expose their endgame as being something that America and the world cannot afford to play.
News reports still continue to comment on how major American corporations, financial institutions, and insurance companies that have their hands stretched out asking for taxpayer bailout still continue to shamelessly spend money on unbelievable expenses.
AIG is the worst culprit of them all. There have been documented cases of more than one expensive, unnecessary and in your face lavish events that this company has continued to hold for its executives.
This company is getting some of the biggest handouts in corporate, financial and global history, already exceeding the $100 billion, yet its executives are dining out on $400 steakhouse dinners, staying in two-storey resort bungalows – while having massage and spa treatment instead of attending the so-called necessary conference costing nearly half a million Dollars! I wonder where I can apply for one of these jobs. I love steak, my shoulders are tight and I sure could use some R&R at taxpayer expense.
I have to give credit to my fellow media professional, the respected TV anchor, Lou Dobbs of CNN for not letting go of the story – despite the bold-faced explanations of the AIG CEO on the lame Larry King Show.
There is one story, however, that I do not think anyone is investigating at least now. It would be so great if CNN, the New York Times or the Washington Post – all the great American institutions – would spend some resources on investigating, in-depth, the major stock trades that took place during the last few months.
I do not have any proof to level a formal complaint or accusation, yet. But, I have a hunch that all was not as it appeared.
I hope that future historians, investigators, and congressional committees will investigate what I am going to say in more depth. I wonder, no, I ask: Was the stock market being manipulated by M/s Paulson, Bush officials and their cronies? What do you think?
While it seems hard to imagine, I do not put it past the friends of evil genius Karl Rove to let the United States economy fall into a new great depression.
Students of the Great Depression and its causes, including Secretary Paulson, and Karl Rove, know that it can take four years or more for an economy to come back from a giant depression.
That means, conceivably it is possible to sabotage an Obama presidency even before he takes office! They could do this while setting the stage for the economy to still be in bad shape when the Republicans make the next bid for the White House in 2012.
I hope I am wrong, but American politicians have been guilty of far worse crimes, against their own people.
Imran Anwar is a New York and Miami based Pakistani-American entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, inventor, writer and TV personality. He can be reached through his web site http://imran.com and imran@imran.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/imrananwar
The historic election of president-elect Barack Obama is complete. Jockeying has begun for positions in the new Cabinet and the new administration – which will take oath of office in early 2009. Democrats who have worked hard for Obama’s success are lining up.
On the Republican side, the blame game continues on who was responsible for the disastrous showing of the Republican Party in the recent elections. Not only did a relative newcomer to politics, but an African-American on top of that, manage to beat a far more established political rival John McCain, Democrats also increased their significant majority in Congress and now even the Senate. It’s going to be a difficult 2-4 years for the Republicans.
While the Republicans are still licking their wounds, they are still not an agreement on whether the defeated vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was an asset or a serious liability.
There are some who admit that Sarah Palin was a terrible selection. Even the unofficial mouthpiece of the Republican Party, and the ultra-right-wing as well as neo-con movements of the United States, Fox News Channel, had one of its reporters rattling off a litany of Sarah Palin weaknesses.
Of course this was done after the election. This included apparently amazing, and downright scary, facts like the candidate for vice president of the United States, one heartbeat away from the presidency if the physically challenged John McCain was to die while in office, could not name the three countries that make up North America! Canada is to the North of us Americans, and Mexico is to the South. She did not know that! She did not know that Africa is a continent and not a country. The list goes on.
What is even more shocking than such an apparent moron being a major political party’s candidate is that some people still do not seem to have learned a lesson from this defeat. It appears that some part of the Republican Party still does not get it. There are people who are already positioning Palin for a presidential run in 2012. They seem to think that extreme right-wing ultraconservative bible thumping hockey mom small town Christian mentality is what America needs. Heaven forbid!
These people are quite clear in their thinking that she was a great candidate who was simply defeated because the media did not like her. Blaming the media is nothing new, as we know in all countries. Most parties and candidates do it, especially if they are falling behind or defeated.
However, even as a writer who worked for a newspaper (Jang Group & MAG Weekly) in Pakistan that was constantly attacked by the left and right asking for greater coverage than the other side, I find the Republican Party’s blaming the media laughable.
I am all for being fair and balanced, for real, unlike just as a dumb slogan, and giving equal coverage to all parties – especially at the start of the race.
The media’s job is not to be a mouthpiece of either party, nor should it try to influence people in one way or the other, when the choice is between two equally strong candidates.
But, it is ridiculous to assume that the media should be giving equal coverage, or writing equal number of "positive stories" if one candidate is running an awesome campaign and the other just cannot seem to get his foot out of his mouth.
Another amazing thing that is happening now, post-election, is that the same Sarah Palin who was unavailable to do any interviews, or take any press conferences except with carefully chosen friendly journalists, is now all over the media.
One of my favourite TV anchors is Campbell Brown over at CNN. She is bright, beautiful and bold. That is why it is great to see her run a show called "No Bias No Bull". In a recent episode I loved it when she declared that during the elections they could not get Sarah Palin to speak to them and now, post-election, Palin does not ever seem to "shut up!"
Suddenly the same Republican Party that was attacking the media elite, while not making its candidates available to speak to them, is actively courting the media.
John McCain made his first TV appearance after losing the election on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". To his credit McCain has been a gentleman in defeat. He has been gracious and even funny. He told Jay Leno that after losing the election he has been sleeping like a baby. He sleeps for two hours, wakes up crying and goes back to sleep.
In the meantime Sarah Palin, who was calling Barack Obama a socialist, is now gushing with praise and kind words for him and his family. The same man that she was trying to label a terrorist-friend is one she is suggesting should be selecting opponent republicans to be members of his Cabinet. Nice try.
Only time will tell if the Republican Party will continue down this destructive path of courting the ultra-right-wing, fundamentalist Christian, extreme elements of American society.
I, for one, am hoping that the American public and the American media will continue to keep an eye on what and how the Democrats do in the next two years. If it looks like they are foolishly squandering the historic opportunity that American voters gave them, it would be an opportunity for the Republican Party to find its footing, and its place in history again. But that cannot be done just by playing the blame-the-media game.
As a member of the media, I also feel it is our responsibility, to now report accurately, fairly and with an eye to the future. America, and the world, stand together on the brink of disaster but with great and bright future days still within sight. It is up to us to work together to make that brighter future a reality.
[Continued...]
— Imran Anwar is a New York and Miami based Pakistani-American entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, inventor, writer and TV personality. He can be reached through his web site http://imran.com and imran@imran.com . You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/imrananwar
