Monday, October 31, 2011

Imran Anwar on Imran Khan: Why The Future Of Awakened Pakistan Is Not In One Man's Hands

The news media are buzzing about a rather large political protest gathering that took place in Pakistan. People seem galvanized and gravitating more to a national hero Cricket player, turned populist politician. Much that I am happy to see the silent majority Pakistani public starting to rise, I do not have much hope for the person they are following, even though I like and respect him. Here's why.

Imran Khan was about a decade ahead of me at Aitchison College, Lahore, Pakistan, and about 100 years ahead of me in popularity (and dashing good looks :-) ). He will always have my respect for sacrificing his popularity not for wealth but for a Cancer Hospital (in the memory of his late mother). With that one mission in life, he has done more good than Zardari, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharaff combined could do - even if they had tried.

However, there were two reasons Imran Khan struggled in his quest for national power.

Initially it was the typical curse of Third World countries like Pakistan... the same "awam" (عوام - public/populace) that curses crooked politicians is also the one that votes them in to power. Why? Because the crooks are the ones who will help peddle influence illegally, to get things done when voters ask for favors. Someone supposedly aboveboard will not. So, he, like Imran Khan, will stay on the fringe and not get real power. This one sad realization was one major reason I said good bye to my political aspirations in Pakistan when I left 20 years ago. (I do salute Imran Khan for staying and putting up a good fight, even at great personal risk).

Now that the Arab Spring in the Middle East, the Occupy Wall Street in the United States, and far more importantly, the middle class uprising in India against corruption has vested interests and tyrants (political and economic) running for cover, Imran Khan may have a real chance.

But, that brings us to the second serious problem. He is still hampered by lack of any clear (articulated) PLAN that he would execute on, if he was in power. Even his speech in his largest rally (which is being reported on by media including the New York Times, etc.) was another "letdown".

Richard Nixon meeting with President Bhutto of...Image via Wikipedia
The only Pakistani leader who could get away with rambling speeches, and still have a million people or more listening and jumping into action, was the late, once-great, later-tyrannical, deposed and hanged Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Imran Khan is nowhere near that man's stature, statesmanlike quality, popularity, or even vision. In the end, even with his charisma (that Bill Clinton would want to learn from), speaking ability (that Barack Obama would dream of achieving without a teleprompter), it was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's hubris, putting the interests of his crooked henchmen ahead of the nation's, and having no more vision and plan beyond getting re-elected, that got him hanged by General Zia-ul-Haq and the military.
Picture of imran khan infront of the flag of P...Image via Wikipedia
Imran Khan needs to do more than gather 100,000 people (and make a meaningless speech).

Even I can make a speech about what the problems in Pakistan are, name who the crooks are, and why we need to solve the problems....

But, without saying HOW I would solve the problems, WHO I would have as my trusted and nationally trusted lieutenants to execute the plan, I too would be as useless in power as Imran Khan will be - if he does by some twist of fate find himself in government.

Unfortunately, even 15 years in politics getting to this point, Imran Khan, whom I would love to see in power compared to the current crop of so-called leaders, has neither stated his vision, nor articulated his strategy, and neither has he shared a roadmap and execution plan. That is what makes Pakistan's leadership void doubly sad.

Even worse, regardless of his Western education and former lifestyle, Khan's current wave of popularity is driven by a populist state-the-obvious (politicians are crooks and have done nothing for Pakistan), blame-USA fervor (while sometimes sounding like a Taliban apologist).

Yes, the current leaders and even the opposition are crooks. News Flash: So are the ones in the USA and other countries. (Italy's Premier could give Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari a run for the money and the scandalous behavior).  Yes, the USA has a shameful record in Pakistan. Yes, Pakistan's spineless sellout leaders have allowed even more exploitation for their own power. But, Pakistan had economic problems since independence. It has had ethnic near-civil war in different regions for decades before 9/11 or America's arrival in Afghanistan.

Without addressing specific problems that Pakistanis themselves tolerate -- and allow their leaders to create -- neither the cronyism-loving leaders, populist personalities, nor well-intentioned analysts, or worse, power-hungry dictatorial generals, can change the country's future.

As I have said in my own public speaking and on radio & television.... "National destinies are created by people, not by leaders, dictators, pedagogues, or sycophants. Pakistan needs to be saved not from America, but from (illiterate, violent, extremist, close-minded, crooked, corrupt) Pakistanis, by Pakistanis (who still believe in the great future that the nation is capable of achieving)."

What do you think?

© 2011 Imran Anwar
IMRAN.TV


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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Let's Talk TV: How The Post-PC Era Enables Mac/PC To Dominate The Post-TV Era

I read an article in InfoWorld about the evolutionary paths of Apple's iOS and OS X operating systems. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that the next evolution of these operating systems is also an incredible opportunity for a parallel paradigm shift -- from a newly emerging Post-PC to a Post-TV era. Here's why.

In my opinion, there are many different options open to Apple, in what strategy to follow. That also means several options for the technology industry in general to contemplate, rather than wait for Apple's moves and then trying to play catch up.

It would make perfect sense to see these "two" Apple operating systems (both with similar underpinnings) follow the typical development path -- of launching bare essential features, adding features, improving usability, improving performance, and then bringing in new features to start the cycle over again.

In this next decade, all this will be happening in an area not just of convergence in the technology arena (from cloud computing for consumers and converged infrastructure data centers for corporations), but also the form and factor areas of consumer & technology products; the convergence of entertainment & communications; and melding of the time we spend living, working & playing.

Steve Jobs while presenting the iPad in San Fr...Image via Wikipedia
We had laptops/desktops, and we had smartphones/iPhones. Then came the late Steve Jobs' iPad. Even as a Mac and Apple fan from it's launch as a company, a platform, and a way of life, I was not certain how big a market iPad would find. It went on to create a whole new market category.

More people increasingly expect to be able to do everything they can do on a laptop now on their iPad and even iPhone in many cases. And the reverse of that is an increasing expectation too. People want user interface, display quality, and app features from the mobile platform to be fit where appropriate on the desktop/laptop, the PC that is.

We can easily imagine retina quality laptop displays (requiring higher resolution handing in the computer OS), touch interfaces, etc. making their way into laptops and desktops.

By the very nature of us living in an increasingly mobile world, the lower price point for cell phones versus laptops, the greater convenience of tablets than carrying laptops, etc. we can obviously continue the market share of handheld mobile devices to grow over even increasingly 'mobile' wireless connected laptops.

But, much that I agree with Steve Jobs' contention that we live in a Post-PC age, it does not, at least in my opinion, mean the end of the PC. Instead, it is my contention that there is a huge opportunity for laptop (and desktop) makers to avoid becoming the platform that dies out and instead to make it the coming second age of the PC.

At the very least they can build in 3D, much more powerful iterations of Siri-like (voice recognition and context driven intelligent assistant) logic on board, rather than requiring an internet connection as the iPhone 4S version requires. These are just some of the features they can add, but they also have a huge opportunity to pull a side-slide instead of being left behind in a paradigm shift.

Everyone agrees that the TV industry is ripe for massive change - one that even Apple and Steve Jobs failed to truly deliver on with AppleTV.

Image representing Apple TV as depicted in Cru...Image via CrunchBaseWith the visionary, one-man-industryial-revoltion-creator, Steve Jobs, gone, Apple has a chance to deliver on this vision. At the same time, competitors, from Sony to Samsung, Mitsubishi to Microsoft, Goldstar to Google, all have an opportunity to remake an industry and remake themselves. As a bonus, they could prove Steve Jobs wrong on his Post-PC contention.

Let mobile devices with cloud connectivity increasingly make Personal Computers less important for "Computing". Instead, make PCs drive the TV experience that industry and society are ready for, even though they don't know it.

Here is just one small bit of how I see this near-term future... [Long 'Vision' Sentence Alert].

The ability to have the same device intelligently streaming exactly the programs we want to see on our big screen, the ads we are less likely to scream at, an ability to click a micropayment to skip a commercial at a particular cliffhanger moment, an ability to click our Likes or + on shows, specific scenes, even product placements, or characters, all while working on a video our 1080p iPhone or smartphone recorded that day, being edited in iMovie, automatically shared in the cloud, and onto new services that enable friends and fans to show appreciation (or make micro-payments) for our masterpieces, with built-in mechanisms for leading channels to track popularity of our creations on the fly in dynamic new content marketplaces, and bidding on them in real time, so they get added to their programming catalogs and we get paid... all while watching House on any TV in the house.

Welcome to the Post-TV PC/Mac. It is time for your company and you to think of Mobile representing the Post-PC world -- with a parallel universe emerging, where the [PC/Mac/Your Product] is the hub of the Post-TV era.

Tech, television and electronics company leaders... Do touch that dial. Let's change the channel(s).

What do you think? Have your people call my people. Let's Talk TV.


© 2011 Imran Anwar
IMRAN.TV

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Ultimate Defeat In The Race Of Life - IMRAN™



The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. That is what living life to the fullest, on the edge, is all about.

With every mountain climbed, there are many spills, falls and crashes we must endure.

The Agony. The Ecstasy. Rinse, and repeat.

But, some of the things that define us, our passions, can also be dangerous, or fatal, like flying, or motorcycle racing.

One moment you are leading and on top of the world, the next, in a micro-instant, it's not just the end of the race, it's the ultimate defeat. The end of life.

Marco Simoncelli Dies Motorcycle Racing. RIP. Click http://j.mp/rWjEzD For Video.

Savor your passions and every moment alive.


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Monday, October 24, 2011

Neighs Ease Nigh High Seas - IMRAN™

neigh/nā/ Noun: A characteristic high-pitched sound uttered by a horse.

nigh/nī/ Adverb: Near

Harbour Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas, is one of the most beautiful places I have visited.

The luxury resort (Coral Sands) my then companion and I stayed at was expensive, but right on the beach, and absolutely worth the experience.

Relaxing on the talcum powder soft pink natural sand, as the day was ending, I witnessed this pair of horses, making soft neigh sounds, feeling ease as they headed home, nigh the high seas, with a cruise ship passing by in the distance of the shining Caribbean waters.

© 2007-2011 IMRAN
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Monday, October 17, 2011

Empire Of The Sun - IMRAN™


Empire Of The Sun is a 1987 movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, which came out during the years of my first arriving in the USA, and settling into New York City. Then, more than 2 decades flew by. As a result, it is still on my list of movies to see.

But, that title has always remained with me. Even as I captured this breathtaking, SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera {except framing and titling} unedited, unprocessed), photograph.

It was taken from my yacht, in Biscayne Bay, returning from the Atlantic Ocean, on what had initially appeared to be a gray afternoon.

My then companion and I almost decided not to go out, but, a day of boating, on the ocean, beats a day driving around town. So, off we went.

As we headed back towards home port, in Coral Gables, Florida, timing the crossing of the channel to coincide with the sunset hour, I planned to capture the abandoned homes of Stiltsville silhouetted against the sun.

The sun was getting more rich, the haze more like natural camera filters. The clouds were really layered like thin muslin sheets across different distances and altitudes, creating a once in a million year combination of patterns, colors, hues and shades.

I had no idea, that without any skill on my part :-) , the Nikon D300, and the f/14 1/800 second ISO200 0eV exposures would lead to possibly the most stunning series of photos I had ever captured in my life.

Some will need to be straightened because I was slowly letting the Sea Ray Sundancer drift, its twin 8.1 liter Mercruiser engines idling, as I both maneuvered the boat with one hand to position the boat, and clicked the camera with the other hand, to capture the sun from different angles, and from between and behind different structures. The water was choppy.

As I stood in the cockpit, with no vessel or persons around me for miles, the vast openness of the darkening Atlantic Ocean to my left, other homes of Stiltsville behind me, choppy waters of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline to my right, with no other souls in sight…

I gazed at the sight that lay ahead…

And, it made me gasp out to the Creator, "Oh, My God!"

I felt what I was, and remain.... a humble, insignificant, man, in front of nature, and God.

But, also, in that same moment of clarity I knew...

I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul, the architect of my destiny. And, some of the brightest visions lie behind the darkest clouds, saddest scenes, and foreboding skies.

At that spot, in that moment in time, I realized…

I am the ruler.... of my own Empire Of The Sun.

© 2008-2011 IMRAN
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Monday, October 10, 2011

The Morons Behind America's Next War... With Pakistan!

There's a so-called writer Steve Clemons at The Atlantic, who is probably on the CIA payroll, and writes articles to generate hate or negative opinion about whoever his puppet masters want to target for attack next. You can almost see the tails wag these dogs almost in unison in typical neo-con publications. His latest "article" is about "America's New War with Pakistan"...

You can almost imagine the conversation... "OK, what do you want me to write against them... OK.. Yes, please. The usual payment to the usual account. Thank you. Consider the article done and posted."

No surprise my comment below was deleted though it is neither offensive nor abusive.

I wonder what this writer's position was when now-terrorist former-hero Haqqani was a state guest in the White House with none other than US President Ronald Reagan... You know, that time not too long ago in a galaxy quite nearby, when US tax dollars were being spent to teach DDD (dead dog dictator) Zia how to crush democracy, create the ISI, fund black ops, and how to shove zealotry into a moderate Muslim Pakistan (and basket case Afghanistan) to make people consider the war against the Soviet occupiers an Islamic Jihad.

Ah, the irony, the irony. Good old fashioned conservative Christians in power funding with American tax payer money the creation of madrassahs and indoctrination programs, to teach young boys and men to kill or die fighting non-Muslim occupying armies....

Oooops, fast forward 30 years and that is our American soldiers now paying the price for that policy...

Once again, Pakistan was befriended when USA needed it, then used, abused, dumped it like a used Kleenex and now now, suddenly, puppet writers in many publications are writing op-eds about Pakistan as the new enemy.
So, so, predictable.

Imran Anwar
IMRAN.TV
http://blog.imran.com
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Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Solar Fire, Solo Flier - IMRAN™


Steve Jobs, visionary, genius. Thank you for everything. RIP.

Hat Trick +2 ! My 5th flickr Explore in a row.

My 45th Photo to make it in Flickr Explore on October 5, 2011!

Smith Point County Park Bridge is a place which has many special meanings to me.

It is a place I visited with my beloved Father when he was in the USA in 1996, at a time of great difficulties for me.

Over the 15 years since, it is a place I visit by road like others do. It is a site I have boated, sailed and yachted by, on both the bay and the ocean sides. It is a sight I have flown over, spreading my wings over its beaches and near-by islets, to practice flight manuevers. Its parking lot offers a level of comfort -- as an potential emergency landing spot (assuming it is not crowded), especially during fall and winter flying on the ocean.

Walking on it, I have felt its sand in my toes, and I've marched across the asphalt to walk up to the bridge to capture some of my most spectacular sunset photographs.

This was not a particular clear or bright, day, much like the murky uncertainty that surrounds us as individuals and even as nations and a human race. It was not even an interestingly cloudy day, when the infinite variations of cloud shapes always ensure differing shades of red.

But, as the golden sun set, as it set the sky alight with a solar fire, I got what I was waiting for.

An image, a moment in time, a symbolic alignment of man, machine, planet, and the universe with the stages in life I have faced in the last 3 years….

A solo flier appeared when all other birds had given up and gone home. A natural aviator, silently, hopefully, bound for its destination unknown, knowing somewhere along the way it would find its mate, and its dreams would come true…. even as a seemingly endless night appeared before it.

And, even as I was posting this picture, little did I know that someone of far greater significance would be flying away, forever, within hours of my posting this photo. Steve Jobs, RIP.

A Solo Flier Against A Solar Fire.

May we all soar above our troubles and find all the joy, love, and happiness we seek, deserve and desire.

© 2011 IMRAN
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