“Just Say No” To The Drug Of Easy Lazy Parenting & Messed Up Future Lives Of Children – IMRAN™

I love and respect incredible single parents who go all out to provide for their kids.

I have known and loved several single moms who were in my life at one time or another, who were more amazing as struggling single parents than a rich two-parent family could be.

But I also sometimes see people, including single parents, thinking that not granting every wish to a kid is some sort of crime or failure.

That is not true. Enough kids who had everything in life end up with messed up lives, and many who had little in childhood later rise to greatness. It is good, loving AND tough parenting, not saying Yes to everything, that sets children’s future.

For my 27 years living in America and even in my own relatives in Pakistan, I saw kids basically controlling parents. Here in America I see parents trying to be kids’ best friends.

My siblings and I are thankful that we had parents who provided us our every need but did not grant every wish. They went above and beyond, even though we heard No plenty of times.

But, in the long run, they made the most important wish come true and were our best friends. They set us up for lives that, despite the usual ups and downs, could not have been more blessed.

I saw this Share on my beloved beautiful friend Sara’s wall and had to share and comment.

What do you think? Let me know here and on the post on FaceBook.

https://www.facebook.com/MyIMRAN/posts/1325132294170425

Out Of This World Views On Religion, Space & Terrorism! – IMRAN™

Non-Muslims worry that the sons of swines members of #ISIS somehow represent all 1.5 Billion Muslims. If their actions make all Muslims #terrorists then the thousands of child rapes by countless Christian priests in Churches worldwide, including here in America, would mean all Christians are pedophile child rapists. Are they?

Keep in mind Muslims are united in believing only a few things. There’s only One God (Allah in Arabic) that Adam, Nosh, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad brought the message of. They believe in Mohammad as the final prophet in that line. They believe in the day of judgement, heaven and hell. And they believe that the broken roads in their countries, the electricity power failures, their internal bribery driven corrupt cultures, and probably even solar flares are all due to a Zionist conspiracy.

Everything else that can be disagreed on, is disagreed on.

As most people living in #Pakistan know, we #Muslims can’t even sometimes agree which day our #Eid#holiday falls on, with greedy halvah-swallowing mullahs play with telescopes arguing about sighting of the new #moon, here on Earth, which only has one moon.

#God help us if we lived on #Saturn which has 62 moons orbiting it! Talk about #Religion making your head spin. We already have dozens, if not hundreds, of Muslim sects, condemning each other to hell for the way they stand in prayers, or the length of their pants/bottoms. Imagine a Muslim astronaut being told he’s going to hell because his spacesuit shows or conceals his ankles the wrong way.

So, my fellow human beings and especially Christian or non-Muslim friends, the planet’s Muslims are ISIS as much as you are a pedophile. Meaning, don’t go for the foaming at the mouth neo-con hate-mongers whose words of hate about Muslims would get them thrown out of their jobs if they said them about Jews or other groups. All of us, all decent people, of all religions are under threat of ISIS.

Is there an increased risk, even near certainty, of ISIS wolf packs and lone wolves killing innocent people in our countries? Yes, unfortunately, certainly there is. But even here in America our biggest killers remain handguns and drunk drivers way more than any terrorist groups. But no one wants to pay attention to or stop those killers.

If anything, the evil ISIS, AlQaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram, have killed 100,000s more Muslims than they have barbarically and un-Islamically murdered non-Muslims. But 100,000 Muslims killed by terrorists in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, etc. get 2 inches of newspaper space on Page 5.

When terrorists kill anywhere from 10-100 in a place like Paris, it becomes a global tragedy. That in itself plays right into the terrorists hands who will obviously want to carry out attacks that get news coverage.

Even worse are the media hypocrisy and dual standards of justice we show. When a non-Muslims murders 30 (thirty) people in an attack, he is an “alleged shooter”. If a so-called Muslim kills 3, repeat three, people, it is a massacre by a terrorists. The non-Muslim who kills 30 gets life in prison. 

The moron younger brother involved in the deaths of 3 people in the Boston Marathon was declared a terrorist who got the death penalty even in bleeding heart (hypocrite) liberal Massachusetts.

All this plays right into the hands of AlQaeda and ISIS as “proof the West hates Muslims” and gets them even more recruitment success. That puts us all at even greater risk of terror attacks here.

May my fellow Americans who are maligning all Muslims and Islam for the actions of ISIS wake up and smell the coffee of logic and facts. And, may these ISIS type terrorists be pelted with 62 Saturn sized spinning fireballs in Hell when they think they’re getting 72 hot virgins to take for a spin. Amen x 72 x 62!

What do you think?



— Typed on a cell phone screen, excuse any typos if you’re a grammar fundamentalist.

Duck Off! Go Fish! Lessons For Mankind! – IMRAN™

Bard & Bard. Memories Of Quarter Century Ago – IMRAN™

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Bard & Bard, In Memory Of A Friend. Exactly 25 Years Ago! Upstate New York photo (printed and scanned in 1990) was taken…

Posted by Imran Anwar on Thursday, July 16, 2015

To Achieve Greatness In The Digital World, Respect Intellectual Property & Innovate, Or Be Irrelevant! – IMRAN™

The article (Tech In Pakistan 2014) in the reputable Pakistan newspaper, Dawn, makes good points lamenting the mind numbingly stupid, and self-destructive, policies and factors that make for such “tepid performance” in Pakistan. The author, Y. Brohi, points how one does not need an army of people to launch a startup. My personal experience proved that, indeed, even one person can start a revolution or entire industries for others to build on.

In the end of the 80s and early 1990s, I was fortunate and blessed to pioneer and launch Internet email service in Pakistan right from my home in Gulberg-III, Lahore, while I was studying for my MBA at Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York City. Together we, my partner & friend Ashar Nisar and I, were able to launch the .PK ccTLD, literally putting Pakistan on the brave new digital world’s map.

I later also had the opportunity to make another, less known but also important, humble contribution to Pakistan’s economic progress, by bringing and launching global credit cards in Pakistan, starting with issuing the first MasterCard license to a Pakistani bank in the early 90s. The availability of credit to the middle class can be a major driver to drive economic activity and the creation of products, services and related jobs.

Both of those industries were launched with no government funding (actually, we succeeded despite resistance and other tactics of the authorities of that time that I will not mention), and without venture capital, which at that time was near impossible to get in Pakistan.

My reason for writing this is not to boast on past achievements but to exhort the dynamic and hard working Pakistani entrepreneurs to learn from what the article says and what my experience shows.

You, one person, can start anything you want. There is nothing stopping the next secure identity and privacy solution to be created in Pakistan. There is no reason that artificial intelligence or secure cloud computing methods cannot be pioneered by Pakistanis.

If there is one thing that I have been frustrated by, and feel is a core reason for Pakistanis not creating world changing new things, is the disregard for intellectual property rights and concepts. From people ripping DVD movies to kids ripping games without payment, to the shameless way so-called respectable newspapers (excluding Dawn) steal and reprint others’ creative output, theft of intellectual property is commonplace, and almost something people boast about.

How then can people think in terms of creating intellectual property if they are themselves busy stealing someone else’s? That attitude is embedded in our culture and needs to be addressed. Without that, all the creative capabilities of Pakistanis will continue to be wasted on copying or reverse engineering others’ work, not creating brave new IP to change the world. 

I would love to see that topic get discussed at a national level. There are few nations that have so much creative entrepreneurial talent than Pakistan, as I have seen in my ~30 years of traveling the world.

Let us find ways to stimulate that and channel that and guide that for the greater good of the creators and the nation. That is why, in speaking to groups of Pakistani entrepreneurs and technology professionals, I say, “To Achieve Greatness In The Digital World, Respect Intellectual Property And Innovate With Your Own, Or Be Irrelevant!”

IMRAN™
http://imran.pk

On Freedoms And Memories Of Another Day On Memorial Day – IMRAN™

I was still a final year student at University of Engineering and Technology (Lahore, Pakistan) when Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, the owner of the media empire in this NY Times story ( http://j.mp/1r9rVO6 ), invited me to work directly for him. I was 22 then. 

 

I had met him a few times before, mostly as a student leader leading protest marches into his office when Jang, the leading Pakistan newspaper but that would cave in and give greater coverage to the Taliban cousins Jamate-Islami fundamentalists party. So it was an ironic twist to become one of his key people. 

 

He originally invited me to write on a Youth page but in my first day visiting his office I saw how IBM people in Pakistan were about to rip him off by selling electric typewriters with changeable font balls as “desktop publishing systems”. I made a comment about that. 

 

Yes, I always spoke my mind regardless of the “stature” of the people in the room and continue to do so. 

 

Shakil didn’t sign the contract and immediately said, forget the youth page, I want you to sit with me here every day and advise me on anything you want. He had the foresight to see that my vision of technology changing media changing society changing the world was the missing piece in his media/society part of the equation. 

 

I learned a lot of lessons from him, 90% of them good, and just 10% of them disappointments. That is a pretty amazing ratio in a world full of us imperfect people. And I am sure there have been times I must have disappointed him too. But I consider him one of the best teachers in my life besides my parents. 

 

He did his best to dissuade me from going to Columbia Business School on a full scholarship, saying I would learn so much more as his right hand man. I have no doubt that would have been true, but I am glad I left. Yes, it would have been an amazing journey with Shakil, but I would still be an employee of a tycoon. I am blessed and grateful for all that life has brought my way on my own. 

 

Our friendship continued over the last 25 years I spent in America. I literally flew in on a PIA flight carrying several thousands pounds of equipment for the well known News International which I was involved in the launch of. I literally flew in minutes before the newspaper went to press.

 

Shakil left the press building even as plates for the very first copies of the paper were being mounted onto presses. Even though it was a lifetime dream of his family coming true, he drove from the Jang Karachi building to the airport to personally receive me inside the terminal and then drove me to the press with him to see the very first copies of the newspaper roll off the press. I always honor him for how he has always honored me over the years.

 

Though we are not related at all, we used to look alike a bit. (Maybe the prominent nose LOL). He always treated me like a younger brother he did not have (unless I happened to ask for a raise LOL). And he would always laugh when I would affectionately mimic his distinctive manner and style of speaking. 

 

One day we were in his magnificent office on the top floor of the Jang Building in Lahore when I did my impression of him. He was laughing out loud when his assistant (Fayyaz) said a well known but obnoxious person (son of a national leader), who had not personally met Shakil before, was there to visit. 

 

Like in a comedy movie, Shakil thought my impression was so great I should meet that obnoxious person acting as Shakil and Shakil would become Imran. We both moved to the “drawing room” part of the office when the guest came in. And I have to say, I was so flawless in doing my Shakil impression the guest (who had spoken to MSR before on the phone) had no clue what happened. Shakil and I had to do everything in our power not to crack up laughing. We did not do that again, but I remember that and many other adventures, mid-day or midnight, that we shared with love, trust and affection.  

 

Though Shakil and I do not get time to speak regularly now, I still consider him one of the smartest, most forward looking businessmen in the world. Yes, Jang, and the GEO channel, are brilliant commercial media organizations. But not once did I ever see action or hear any words come out of the mouth of Shakil (or his late father the great Mir Khalil ur Rehman, brother Javed, or his brilliant sons or daughters) that would ever be remotely considered anti-Pakistan or anti-Islam. 

 

I laugh at former Playboy, by now probably Viagra-needing pro-fundamentalists, like Imran Khan (whom I once admired) and others making accusations against Shakil. It amazes me how many dumb idiots, especially on Twitter and FaceBook (places they exercise right to free speech), foaming at the mouth about wanting to have GEO shut down. 

 

They do not know what it is like not to have these basic freedoms of expression. They do not know how to exercise the freedom of switching the channel if they do not like something. They want things to be exactly how they want them or to be shut down.

 

These idiots did not serve in newsrooms that were raided by scummy crooked military officers of evil dictator General Zia‘s regime to rip out stories being put in the next day’s paper. They did not know journalists whose fingernails were ripped out by “security services” as we knew.  They did not get court-martialed as an engineering student leader for leading marches against the military regime as I did.

 

They did not fall sleep on the floors of newspaper press buildings at 4AM to make sure nothing kept the presses from running. Shakil did, and I was proud to have been next to him in those times. 

 

Long live democracy, freedom of speech, and a free Press, in Pakistan as well as USA. 

 

And long live my friend Shakil and his family.

Happy Mother’s Day, Half Century Ago, Today And Forever – IMRAN™

 

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Post by Imran Anwar.

 

My Late Mother And I, Happy Mother’s Day, A Half Century Ago, Captured By My Late Father. —

Beloved Ami Jan, as you look down from your place in heaven, on this and every Mother’s Day, please know that every day that has passed since you left too soon 22 years ago has been a day devoted to loving, missing and remembering you.

One day the number of years that you have been gone will exceed the number of days I was blessed with your love, your presence, your prayers in every aspect of my life.

But I promise you my love for you will continue to flow even more deeply in my soul and the tears that roll down my cheeks as I write these lines that have never let up, never dried, will mark the passing of all the days I have yearned for you to somehow be back, even if it meant exchanging the remaining days of my life for you to have a chance to live again.

Happy Mother’s Day, Ami, will be when God wills for me to walk up to you in the afterlife, and say, I am your son, and I hope I lived a life that was worthy of having been your son. I love you, forever and beyond, Ami.

Imran
Mother’s Day 2014
Apollo Beach

Somebody’s Watching Me – IMRAN™

 

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Post by Imran Anwar.

 

Let There Be Consequences To Treason

I have always been a supporter of democracy, imperfect as it is, over all forms of dictatorship and tyranny, whether ‘benevolent dictators‘ or hypocritical Kings supposedly custodians of holy places. 

One reason Pakistan has always been overrun by its own military was that there were never any consequences to the military people who broke the constitution.

As in every society, sycophants will crawl at the feet of whoever has power, regardless of how evil or how illegal the dictator may be.

The worst cancer of religious intolerance, extremism and terrorism was injected into Pakistani society more than 30 years ago by the vile General Zia, who turned Islam into a weapon against democracy and moderation.

It was with a sense of hope that I read this news item today. Former #Pakistan Dictator Pervez Musharraf indicted on Treason!

General Musharaff was not bad as far as dictators go, and even did a few good things. Of course, he let power go to his head and paid the price. Even after being ousted he was delusional enough to return to Pakistan expecting to win back power.

I do not wish to see him condemned to death or anything that would be too extreme.

But, may this be a good start to the concept of “actions have consequences” and “no one is above the law” that Pakistan has long needed.

More than teaching Musharaff a lesson, I hope this teaches all politicians, and military people, that Pakistanis have awakened, the rule of law is getting established in the echelons of power, and that in time Pakistan can be a strong, stable, moderate democracy and a regional power of good. Amen.

 

 

Fat Chance Of Not Taking It On My Double Chin For Calling Obesity & Political Correctness What They Are

Around April 2011, during a flight on a Southwest Airlines plane, I took a tongue in cheek photo of a, shall we say, “heavy” passenger barely fitting in the space between their seat and the one ahead of them. That had been around the time when another Southwest Airlines Boeing jet had developed cracks in the ceiling! So, I quipped:

Travel Light? Surprised A SouthWest Boeing’s Ceiling Cracked Before The Seat & Floor Of This Flight I Was On  http://twitpic.com/4h9dst

Having almost always been an, ahemmm, cuddly (read chubby) fellow all my life, and not desiring to hurt someone’s feelings, I snapped the picture in flight with the sunlight making the person unidentifiable. The photo also showed up on FaceBook in my mobile album. 

Somehow, two years later, this week, that old post got activity based on a Like or comment. Then suddenly it got some very interesting comments. Some thought the picture was funny, several took me to task for making fun of a “victim” and being mean. (Note, I did not make fun of anyone, but of the ironic situation related to a news event I mention above). 

Instead of a long essay, I wrote my initial set of top 10 points in response. I would love to have your thoughts on these….

1. How funny to be criticized for what people see me as making fun of a fat person, when in fact almost every 5th comment I post about myself makes fun of my own belly and double/multiple chins. 

2. What an era of political correctness.  If someone did want to make fun of fat people (or skinny people), the PC crowd comes out sanctimoniously passing judgement on those they accuse of… drum roll… passing judgement! Even if I had made fun of someone, what has happened to us? We are now overdosing on confusing nutrition information, nanny state little dictator mayors telling us what size soda we can buy, and general political correctness!

3. I did not make fun of this lady, but, even if I or someone did, most of humor in the world can be taken as being mean to someone or hurtful to some group. Do people post complains about meanness when they read a lawyer joke? I figured I would check. And, not to my surprise, almost each of my critics I looked at, those complaining about my post being mean, actually have jokes posted on their walls about homosexuals, Quakers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, liberals, conservatives, rednecks, and others! Isn’t that mean also? At the very least it is ironic and hypocritical!

4. I am fat, or at least significantly heavier than I want to be, because I drink 1-2L Pepsi daily and eat a ton of ice-cream a month (figuratively speaking, so as not to offend those who prefer accuracy in reporting amounts and numbers!). Thanks, but no, thanks, if you try to “protect” me if someone calls me fat. I am not a victim. I (sadly LOL) choose to be irresponsible with the usual, I will start exercise and healthy eating tomorrow but am too busy today excuse. I know that if I do not stop I will end up like the person in that photo —  and the millions of obese fellow Americans.

5. Steaks and ice-cream jars do not attack me or force themselves down my throat onto my waist,   or of that person! We choose to consume calories, and then get to the stage where good-hearted people like my FaceBook friends get all judgmental and attack someone who states a simple truth.

6. My late Mom and I loved to eat and had/have a tendency to put on weight. So she worked out DAILY. Her peers almost all grew to the size of this lady. One of them (a very dear family friend) actually sat on a solid wood dining chair in my parents house and snapped it it in two. These were not victims. They, like me, were choosing to get fat while my Mom, RIP, worked out every day.

7. I HAVE seen a fat person break the back of an airline seat. I have sat next to a really fat guy on a recent flight who basically squished me into the wall. They are welcome to buy two seats instead of penalizing the rest of us who still (barely) fit in an airline seat.

8. I agree with my friend Nancee Lee, most people find it easier to sit back and label people as victims rather than either keep them from getting unhealthy or helping them get healthy again.

9. A former friend of mine TCB in Miami was like a size 2 when I first met her as friends in end 1989. We did not meet a few years and she turned into a size 16. She had been unhappy and eating unhealthy, and other “laid” excuses we all make. When we met again around 2005-2008, she was down to size 8 even as she was turning 40 soon thereafter (a time I am told it gets even harder to lose and keep off weight). We are not in contact now but I want to mention her for her discipline I saw back then. I saw how she made the effort, portion control, calorie control, light exercise even though she was partly asthmatic or something, and so on. So, when people care enough to care about themselves, they choose do something about it.

And, lastly, comment number ten….

10. I grew up away from home, with my grandmother, who, showing love for a little kid away from his parents, let me eat all I wanted… ice-cream, chocolate cake, etc. Within 2-3 years in Karachi, Pakistan I was the fattest kid in class if not all of St. Paul’s English High School. I was constantly made fun of. Fatty Bumbola Drink Coca Cola they called me! And the best I could come back with would be, “You are 7-Up”. Maybe that is why I prefer Pepsi? LOL. (Actually I believe that may be because reportedly Pepsi has more sugar in it!). Anyway, I have been fat, been less fat, been more fat, and up and down, and am still FAT!

I hold the key to my present and future health in my own choices.

Someone calling me Fat doesn’t bother me.  But someone thinking I am a victim is truly a bigger insult.

What do you think?