Monthly Archives: June 2010

5 minutes that can ruin 1.5 (or 3) hours

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I don’t know all the inner workings of the movie studio business and I’m SURE there are all unavoidable reasons why this happens but I’ve watched two movies recently that would have been really great if…Green ZoneA Hollywood movie, with Matt Damon would easily fall into the catagory of another movie about Iraq, but ’cause Matt Damons a pretty decent actor his pacing, style and the overall plot line is pretty good which makes the movie totally enjoyable. EXCEPT FOR – (spoiler alert) – the last 5 minutes where Matt Damon’s character creates a Hollywood ending by ‘telling the truth about WMD’s’ in a handy ‘these evil politicians are lying to you’ report to all the top news organizations (on the screen you actually see CNN, NYTimes, WallStreet Journal).

Boo!Now imagine a this is a better ending – Damon has it out with evil politician – then gives a cold stare to ‘didn’t look into the truth’ reporter, evil politician storms into room where puppet Karzai character is having it out with other Iraqi politicians – cut to Matt Damon heading out into the fields to continue battle. THE END.

RaajneetiThis one is a bollywood film which I watched in the theaters recently. So it’s a complicated, twisty turn plot which is a mix between The Godfather (1, 2 & 3) and like real-life Bhutto-Ghandi family. Anyways, it’s a MOVIE and a decently good one at that. But again, for a movie that tries to be all hard hitting in your face political truths – why the sap fest ending?Are we REALLY supposed to believe that the father (whose only adopted son) the main character Samar (aka Al Pachino from Godfather) has killed is gonna beg to be allowed to continue to be driver of the very person who killed his son? (Or is it a typically subversive narrative – if you are poor you are nothing, you must accept what happens to you in this life and pray to be born a higher, richer being in the next).

And exactly WHY does the Samar character – who is angel turned devil in the name of family – get to be the ONLY person who gets of scott free? He is happily going back to America to continue his studies and life the life he always planned while everyone else is left to shoulder the burden. (What makes the Godfather ultimately satisfying is that he loses everyone he loves – you know pays for his sins and all.) Yeah I know he loses his girlfriend / unborn baby, but the actor doesn’t really convince that the cared about them all that much.A better ending? He get’s into the car with the driver and as they approach the sunset, it blows up. THE END. :)

Another bold step…towards insanity.

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It seems people around me are not very alarmed at the neck breaking speed at which Pakistan is heading towards fundamentalism. First it was the banning of Facebook – which was implemented while I was traveling. The ‘REASON’ for the ban was blasphemous material (aka people wanting to draw pictures of the prophet).  I thought that the banning was insanity – and more insane that it was a court order ban. Hello what about if people find it SO offensive DON’T GO ON FACEBOOK!  Why do we have to be big-brother monitored so that SOME people don’t encounter content that SOME content they might find offensive.Ok as usual – I would expect most people to be incredibly indignant and protest this restriction of our freedom. But as I often do, I totally underestimate people reactions. Everyone I spoke to about this (and I’m talking about educated, well traveled, so called moderate people) AGREED with the ban either because 1. It’s Blasphemous (um.. note point above) or 2. It’s to appease the irrational masses (umn..no it sets a precedent).Well the president has been set and now some stupid person has gone to court to say that Google, YouTube, Yahoo, MSN, Bing and like 19 other sites should ALSO be blocked because they contain blasphemous material. And guess what – the court agrees and the PTA claims that ‘it has yet to receive a directive from the court to block these sites’ but I’m assuming as soon as they do they will obliging go ahead and block them.First of all, it goes to show that these so called lawyers have not spent much time dragging themselves out of the stone age cause they don’t seem to know that you have to actually SEARCH for something blasphemous for it to appear. Or that they are just like politicians pushing through laws that pander to the public regardless of what would actual responsible judicial decision.I’m very angry – but I better spend the last few hours of free access to the world wide web googling ways to by pass the ban.

Karachi at Street Level

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Went on my first ride with Critical Mass Karachi. We started at 6:45 in the morning. Despite the early hour it was surprisingly bright and hot!Our bike route took us from ‘the McDonalds on the way to Ayesha’s house’ to ‘The Point’ past ‘PTCL office’ and ‘Mohotta Palace’, ‘SeaView’ and ‘Bilawal House’. (I am becoming a Karachitte because I no longer remember street names.)The ride was great – a chance for me to see the city on the street level and out of my protective and isolating steel carriage. (Don’t get me wrong – I L-O-V-E my car.) Karachi on the street is both very dirty and smelly and at times surprisingly pretty.

View of Sea View

One of our brand new bus stops. It’s a great improvement for the commuters of the city. Now if only the buses were not controlled by the mafia and we could have decent public transportation.

Shaheed (Martyred) Benazir Bhutto Park

Apartment complex with ruble outside. Ok, it’s the truth - this apartment block makes it look like Karachi is in the middle of a war. (Which it is… just not on this block.) Can you say bad property management?

Old Tree

Recycling

That's me in the corner.