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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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If you are looking for something profound… Then this is sooooo not the article for you.
As I am still in a residual Christmas torpor and fully expect to remain in one until after New Years Day, I am going to resist commenting on the appalling assassination of Benazir Bhutto by some Islamic fundi-mentalist fucktard and instead give you a link to the trailer for a completely gonzo Japanese movie.
Well it was either that or post a gratuitous cat picture.
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And as I’m in much the same state as you, Perry, I’ll restrict my comments to endorsing your very accurate use of the word “fucktard”, being pleasantly surprised by your lolcats reference and remaining silent, but slightly disturbed, by the movie.
I’d never particularly held any brief for BB, but really, as you (kind of) say, Goddam fucking fucktards!
I must come here too often because I’m able to immediately recognise the furniture in Samizdata HQ (I admit, I’m kind of a furniture fetishist)! If you look here, you will see the rather funky elephant table as well as our feline star, who was even captioned in lolcatish!
icanhascheezburger.com is one of the treasures of the Internet, I sez.
No, wasn’t looking for anything profound:-)
I find the fact that a woman became PM in a country such as Pakistan fascinating. This could never happen in an Arab country, including some that are apparently less fundamentally Islamic than Pakistan.
That site is a riot, and the linked picture is not the funniest either!
Alisa.
As you know there were Arab Queens in ancient times – even in post Islamic times (although they got even more uncommon with the rise of Islam).
It is much the same in Pakistan and Bangladesh – female heads of government, whose right to rule is based on being the father’s daughters.
As for Pakistan, the father was the worst ruler the country ever had. He destroyed the Christian mission schools, which did not covert people to Christianity, and thus opened the way for the new Wahabbi dominated Muslim religious schools (different from most of the traditional Muslim schools in Pakistan). The government schools being useless – for reasons that (as you know) have nothing to do with money.
He also nationalized everything in site – thus undermining the economy which, in the 1950s and 1960’s, had done much better than India.
As for his attitude to power – I think it was best summed by these words of his:
“We will have nuclear weapons, even if the people have to eat grass”.
Not that he ever ate any grass himself.
Paul:
I did not know that – very interesting. Maybe it shows that the Arab culture has a potential of reforming itself. Regardless, I think you would agree that in today’s Arab world this a woman as a head of state would be unthinkable.
I don’t necessarily have a problem with the hereditary transfer of power in itself. Also, it’s not as if I am a fan of BB or her father. It’s just that I find the mere fact that she is a woman fascinating.