IDK’s Person of the year

With Time magazines recent announcement of its person of the year (a banker no less). America’s preoccupation with the almighty dollar becomes even more apparent. Arguably the chairman of the Federal Reserve commands considerable influence over the lives of US Citizens, more so in tough economic circumstances. However it can be said that these influences are abstract and esoteric in nature.

With my far maligned worldview my choice of person of the year isn’t on the mainstream media’s radar. However my person of the year has had a real and tangible influence on my life. Pakistan is a savage land and no more is this made more apparent than in it politics. At times reminiscent of the mob wars of a bygone Chicago politics in the land of the pure can get ugly. That’s why very few politicians rise above the muck and manage to take a respectable position in society. Among these is the late Senator Syed Mazhar Ali.

A civil engineer by profession he is responsible for the township in which my late father built his home and in which my mother now resides in. It’s a splendid community to live in and has been featured as a blog post on IDK. Well run municipalities such as Gulshan-e-Maymar are rare in Pakistan and have spawned many copycats who try to match its excellence. Proper housing is sorely needed by the weary citizens of Karachi and I salute any effort to address this need.

The good senator didn’t make it on my list just because he planned a model community. It’s what he built in the heart of the town that really gets my motor going. In its heyday my alma mater the Karachi Institute of Information Technology offered world class education in the area of software development. Its beautifully constructed campus offered students a sanctuary where they could flourish as individuals and as professionals. I made numerous lifetime friends in that place and always have fond memories when I recall my time there.

Apparently in a place where illiteracy is the norm not even education is spared by the crosshairs of the savage land. A spat between the senator and the Higher Education Commission managed to get the university blacklisted. Parents ignorant of the quality of education at the institute kept their kids away and soon attendance dropped. Compounding this problem was the early demise of the senator. His death had a tremendous impact on the staff and faculty. I remember our director (his little brother) an MIT educated luminary delivering the tragic news with teary eyes. A Quran-khani was shortly arranged and the holy book was recited many times over in his honor by the students. With no strongman championing for the University the establishment had to close its doors.

So there you have it my person of the year.

Here's to nifty partnerships

I've been meaning to get Metallica's latest album (they finally won a grammy). Just in case you're thinking that this is just some bandwagon bullshit it's not. An old highschool buddy of mine got me hooked on the band a long time ago I've been following them since. The track that's been getting the most press is this jewel:

The Day That Never Comes

Stellar song and drives home an importan point of view. Which got me thinking...does the Pakistani music scene have anything to offer? The answer is a most definite yes. I've already introduced Junoon to the readers. There considered to be the grand daddies of Pakistani Rock now here's a word from a much younger rock band. With their piece "Waqt".



Now Waqt is the Urdu word for time. The song's message is that don't achieve your goals by unlawful means because at the end it will never work out. Over the years the term Waqt has become synonymous with charity work. References to this work is also made in the song which is pretty cool. Can these two bands ever jam together? Or maybe forge a partnership, I Don't Know you be the judge.

This is with reference to Obama's speech last Tuesday. Allocating 30,000 US troops for Afghanistan.

I turn the engine but the engine doesn't turn...

Well I downloaded the game engine (what? you think I am gonna make this from scratch...pshh). It's based on the java language still using Netbeans as my IDE. So far I got it to do this:

Gaming experience is off the hook you can actually walk past that there tree. More sophisticated gameplay will follow soon.

[tangent]One of the great things I like about living in America is that it's a great place to think in[/tangent]

UPDATE: Going with a scripting language called Alice rather than dabble with reams and reams of java code. Maybe in the next version.