Drugs are not the only problem
Drug use usually starts as a form of rebellion, be it against mom and dad, your own friends or society as a whole. Ease of access only increases the likelihood that someone will make an uninformed decision and light up their first joint, smoke their first bong, or worse, pick up their first needle. Pakistan is historically a hashish-smoking nation, with records of the cannabis-derived substance’s use going back thousands of years. Although some would try to deny it, drugs, at least soft drugs, are part of the local culture. From bhang and charas up to opium, Mother Nature’s gifts ...
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Not with that thing on, sister
So it turns out, I cannot enter a nightclub in Dubai. To those who haven’t ever visited the city, Dubai is a place where there are more nightclubs than mosques. Here, alcohol is a ready consolation for all and sundry. When I was visiting, I was forced to put a pillow over my head in a desperate attempt to drown out the noise from the clubs nearby. In Dubai, according to the Emirati who drove our Land Cruiser over sand dunes for the desert safari earlier in the day: “We Dubai people, we do this every day. We get tired of clubbing and partying, ...
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Why I let my children smoke
“Amma, you’re very chalaak, sly and cunning too,” My son stood squarely in front of me, his face red with accusation, teenage angst writ large all over it. “Your whole reverse psychology business has made everything unexciting and boring for us. When my friends gather furtively behind an expansive leaf laden tree to share a smoke, I think to myself, big deal, I can do that at home too,” He relayed to me accusingly. “You were always enticing us with the choice of brands we should try, menthol or no menthol. At the same time telling us to make our own decisions and not be ...
Read Full PostLand of confusion: Why we’ve lost the war on drugs
Recently it was the UN sanctioned International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, another day of world leaders, NGOs and others lying through their teeth about their success in ridding the world of the scourge of narcotic drugs to try and justify their pay checks. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is very different. If you’ve seen the Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 movie Traffic, a remake of the brilliant 1989 British television serial Traffik, starring Jamal Shah among others, you might remember a very relevant piece of dialogue. It happens when teenage junkie Caroline introduces herself during a rehab support group ...
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‘I don’t care, alcohol is fun’
“But, I think the ban on alcohol is absurd. My decision to consume alcohol is based on a personal choice. I don’t see how society or the state might be affected.” As a fellow student, Kashif* argued in favour of imbibing, several of my classmates nodded in agreement. He continued: “ My personal choices should not be regulated by the state.” This is hardly the first time that the concept of personal freedom has clashed with widely accepted norms. I have lost count of the number of times I have been solicited into verbal battles on this subject. Advocates of this school of thought often believe ...
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A dirty war: PML-N and MQM take the gloves off!
The term dirty politics has taken a literal turn and the tension that had been building up for a few days has obviously reached fever pitch. The PML-N and MQM had a show down in front of the parliament house that saw the parliamentary leaders dragging in each others daughters, wives and sisters in to the brawl. Accusations of alcoholism were thrown about and in a heated moment we even heard one leader screaming about sex toys found in one PML-N’s top leaders room! Whoever said politics was boring? In Pakistani politics at least you have all the elements of a great film. There is ...
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A case for elitism: We make the world a better place
A few days ago I read an opinion piece written by Sadaf Khan about the desi-elite bubble that she so eloquently was trying to burst. Sorry to say, but the effort was in vain because it made my foreign degree holding, excessive partying ‘elite’ bubble harder to burst and left me itching to voice my opinion. I do respect the fact that her blog had an opinion, which by reading most of the comments I noticed, was appreciated by several like-minded individuals. Since she already knows how we elitists have an opinion on each and every thing, it is only ...
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Would someone please pop the desi-elite bubble?
Have you ever tried to see through a soap bubble? The world seems distorted; askew. But what if you were inside the bubble? What if everywhere you looked, your vision was tinted by the soapy, bubbly lens – the world would still look distorted but you wouldn’t really know, because no matter which angle you chose to look out, the world would seem the same. So, when one lives in the ‘elite’ bubble, all seems quite well with the world! People in this bubble hail from rich families, have been educated at either the most expensive schools or have a foreign degree, promote ...
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