Smooth Power Of TakeOff Doha To New York - IMRAN™

 My most recent trip to visit my siblings was on our beloved late mother's 25 death anniversary. I got a great round trip airfare flying on Qatar Airways, JFK New York to Lahore with stops in Doha, Qatar each way. Great new planes and fares but I can honestly say Etihad Airways and Emirates service is far better. The airport itself was boring and the staff was unpleasant and least bothered about service with a smile overall. I managed to capture this video taking off from Doha taking off for NY. Check out the incredible water colors of the Khaleej, the Gulf, there. And enjoy the airflow becoming visible over the wings as moisture left a visible trail. Some idiots would insist that was "chemtrails" if they saw it from the ground. 😄😄

© 2017 IMRAN™

#flying #travel #aviation #Qatar #Khaleej

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".

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.
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

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Commentary, Democracy, IMRAN, Opinion, Pakistan, Politics, Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Bill Clinton

Daily Times Pakistan Runs Islam Bashing Palestine Smashing Zionist AIPAC Ads

I am a big proponent of peace in the Middle East. I have also always questioned the Pakistan policy of being anti-Israel when so-called enemies of Israel and thaikedaars of Islam, the Arabs, quietly go about doing business with Israel. I am always amazed by the Pakistani public, which cannot stop making speeches about Jihad against India to liberate Kashmir, completely ignore the traditional Palestinian support of India. Plenty of people used to have posters of Yasser Arafat on their walls, though he considered India's late assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi his "sister".

When all is said and done, Pakistan and Israel have more in common than not. They both won freedom from the British Empire. They were both created in the 1947-48 timeframe, as nations carved out of the land of another nation's land for a religious minority. They are surrounded by much bigger enemies from the other religion. Though they are both created for the people of a particular religion, they both haze sizable minorities.

They also have both been traditionally moderate liberal societies where their respective fundamentalists have assassinated leaders considered too modern or moderate. Both are also US allies, but of course the Jewish influence of US politics is a subject books can be written about while in Pakistan's case any such influence could be listed on the back of a folder paper napkin.

Both nations' cultures and societies have tended to be entrepreneurial and generally kids are encouraged to study (though Pakistan's vast illiteracy rates versus Israel's high literacy rate are a sad comparison). Engineers and Doctors are among the most popular professions, not to mention Lawyers.

Both also share the shameful treatment of their religious minorities. In the case of a Pakistan, though, it is a small evil minority of terrorists willing to kill themselves to blow up fellow Muslims in mosques. In the case of Israel it is a far greater state sponsored display of terrorism when kids throwing rocks in OCCUPIED PALESTINE are shot dead, when in their zeal to kill a Palestinian leader the Israeli Air Force drops 1000 lb. bombs into a residential neighborhood, killing innocent civilians and not the actual target.

What gives Israel this seeming Green Light to commit mini-genocides, theft of occupied land, state to state terrorism and official piracy on the high seas, is the shameful weakness of the USA. In America it is considered political suicide to question policy (a political topic) on Israel (a country) because the often-Jewish-owned or controlled media organizations here (easy to check the ownership of the top newspaper and magazine chains here) and the Zionist lobby will brand that person an anti-Semite!

From Marlon Brando to Oliver Stone, as I wrote even in 1996, even the gods of Hollywood have bowed to the Israeli lobby. None is more insidious, or more an intellectual-terrorist, than AIPAC, in its meticulous targeting of anyone who dares raise a voice against Israel.

So, while I am praying for peace in the Middle East between Palestine (Occupied) and Israel (and also between Pakistan and India on a liberated Kashmir), until AIPAC stops its shameless and insidious control of dissent and debate on Israeli policy of the USA, I have to consider organizations like it and other Zionist fascist genocidal groups in Israel as enemies of peace, Palestinians, Pakistanis and people everywhere, just as AlQaeda is.

AlQaeda tries to destroy America and the world openly. Organizations like AIPAC will gladly burn America and the world on the altar of their domination and control agenda. (Please note, considering AIPAC and the Zionist lobby to be evil is NOT anti-Semitism - which is the typical attack-response we expect and get when anyone questions these insidious entities.)

So, while I would love to see Pakistan and Israel also normalize relations, and leverage the hardworking and smart people they both are blessed with, I find it abhorrent that a newspaper like the Daily Times (which I believe is owned by a PPP Governor in Pakistan) does not seem to care that it's web site shamelessly displays blatant Zionist Lobby advertising.

Yes, I know, it's an online ad from Google. But, site owners have control on what they want advertised or not. Even my personal site http://imran.com has Google ads where I recall setting it not to display alcohol, etc. ads. I do not have a huge staff to even monitor this as the Daily Times owners do.

What a shame that for a few pennies this supposedly Pakistani Muslim newspaper and its owners (in dangerously high positions of power in Pakistan) are showing their complete lack of character. What the Daily Times does is like some paper called The Jewish Daily Times running an ad for a German pro-Nazi group. Jews don't all hate all Germans, but I am sure they don't go running Nazi Party ads for a few cents or paisas, as the Daily Times is doing.

But, then, what would you expect from a newspaper owner family that shamelessly steals intellectual property from newspapers and content creators - despite being repeatedly asked to stop.

Here is a screen capture of the friend of Sehyooni AIPAC Daily Times Lahore Pakistan on, ironically, Friday.